March 26, 2021–Due Process Institute and a bipartisan coalition issued a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for reform of the federal clemency system. The existing review system is in crisis with over 15,000 petitions pending that cannot be resolved because of an overly bureaucratic process involving the Deputy Attorney General and the White House Counsel. However, the crisis can be addressed if needless bureaucracy is eliminated and the Pardon Attorney is appointed as chief of staff to an advisory board of qualified individuals charged with evaluating cases and making recommendations directly to the President. Furthermore, removing prosecutors as the principal evaluators of clemency petitions provides fresh eyes free of institutional conflict.
Clemency petitions can play a key role in addressing long-standing racial equity concerns in the federal criminal legal system. In addition, we urge that several other categories of clemency petitions should be prioritized for review, including the elderly and chronically ill, those in prison for marijuana offenses, those currently on home confinement, women over-sentenced as “accessories” to crimes, those who have received harsh trial penalties, and those sentenced under mandatory minimum sentences.