December 9, 2024–Due Process Institute, Right on Crime, and undersigned state and national conservative organizations urged President Biden to use executive clemency power to allow people who have already served years—sometimes decades—in federal prison and who would receive significantly shorter prison terms if they were sentenced today an opportunity to come home. There are many thousands of people in our federal prisons serving disproportionately long sentences for offenses that would result in much shorter prison terms if they were sentenced today under current law and practice. An example of this situation can be found in the First Step
Act, a major piece of legislation we all supported that was enacted by your predecessor. The First Step Act reined in the use of sentence stacking under 18 USC sec. 942(c) such that a sentencing enhancement could not be applied unless charges for the prior offense had become final. In short, prosecutors can no longer charge multiple counts of violating 924(c) in the same indictment to obtain 55-year sentences like in the infamous case of Weldon Angelos. According to the United States Sentencing Commission, the exact same behavior that would have required a 55-year mandatory minimum sentence prior to enactment of the First Step Act now merits a 15-year sentence. There is no deterrence value in preserving such sentences.
This is a critical opportunity to grant clemency for people who did not benefit from changes made by the First Step Act, people who were subject to the crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity, and people who have spent decades in prison but cannot apply for compassionate release simply because they were sentenced under the “old law” before the adoption of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
Update #1: On December 12, President Biden granted clemency for nearly 1,500 justice impacted individuals. You can read the statement here.
Update #2: On January 17, 2025, President Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 people who had received disproportionally long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, many of which were based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine. You can read the statement here.