President Biden’s Historic Commutations

Dear Friends,

Today, President Biden has taken the historic step of commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people serving long prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, the broadest commutation of individual sentences ever by a U.S. president. This act recognizes the importance of second chances and acknowledges the racial inequalities caused by extreme sentences in the United States.

This incredible act comes less than a month after President Biden took the historic step of commuting nearly all sentences of people on federal death row to life imprisonment. As Martin Luther King, III, who publicly urged the President to commute the federal death row, said, “By commuting these sentences, President Biden has done what no President before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.”

Through these significant commutations, President Biden has honored his commitment to justice reform.  He has also recognized that America’s tough-on-crime policies of the 1990s (some of which he championed as a Senator) have increased racial and social injustice while failing to further public safety. 

As we look ahead to a new presidential administration, let this breathtaking act of justice remind us that our energy, our activism, and our hope matter and make a difference in the world. As the activist and writer Rebecca Solnit said, “Your opponents would love you to believe that it’s hopeless, that you have no power, that there’s no reason to act, that you can’t win. Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away.” Let’s hold hope close as we fight for justice in the months and years ahead.

With gratitude,

Burke Butler
Executive Director
Texas Defender Service