Biden and Trump are talking pardons in the closing days of one president and the beginning of another. This focus on pardons is constructive . if people will listen.
There are more than turkeys being pardoned this holiday season. Joe Biden made news by announcing a presidential pardon for his son Hunter Biden who faced two separate federal criminal charges. The pardon means Hunter Biden will not be sentenced for his crimes, and it eliminates any chance that he will be sent to prison. The judges overseeing his cases will likely cancel the sentencing hearings, which were slated for December 12 in the gun case and December 16 in the tax case.
Many are criticizing Biden for the pardon after he made promises to not pardon Hunter. Biden felt justified in issuing the pardon stating that he felt the prosecution of his son was politically motivated. Meanwhile, President-elect Trump has his own list of pardons he is ready to hand out on day one, namely many of those involved in the January 6th storming of the capital after he lost the previous election. No matter the reasons, it is good that pardons are being discussed.
Pardons have gone a long way toward healing the country. President Andrew Johnson pardoned President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis on Christmas Day, 1868, as part of an amnesty proclamation that granted pardons to all former Confederates. However, for many, pardons or commutations of sentences come years after serving time in prison and hardly have the effect of forgiveness when a debt to society has already been paid. Now, both Biden and Trump have acknowledged that our Department of Justice has put people in prison for either far too long or have wrongly prosecuted them. The pardon process should be transparent enough for us to look at the reasons the pardons were given so we can use that information to evaluate future prosecutions and how laws are enforced. It should also be used to show people who have made a mistake that there is a path to reconciliation.
Biden will likely look for a larger group to pardon that will offset the political missteps he made by promising earlier to not pardon his son. That group should start with the nearly 1,500 prisoners who are currently on home confinement under the CARES Act. During the Pandemic, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) moved over 36,000 people to home confinement under the CARES Act. The CARES Act expanded the amount of time individuals could be placed in home confinement during the pandemic.
