Obama’s Unpardonable Record on Pardons
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Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- In the same news cycle RussianPresident Vladimir Putin said he would free more than 20,000inmates from his country’s prisons, President Barack Obamaannounced a rather less grand gesture of clemency. He commutedthe sentences of eight people convicted of crack-cocaineoffenses -- all of whom have served at least 15 years -- andused his pardon power to erase the criminal records of 13miscellaneous ex-offenders.
Even this mingy and belated use of presidential clemencypower was enough to make news. The American Civil LibertiesUnion noted that until then, “Obama had only pardoned 39 peopleand commuted only one sentence, which is the fewest by anypresident in recent history.”