President Barack Obama's administration faced early criticism from criminal justice reform advocates for not moving fast enough on the clemency petitions. | AP Photo Obama commutes 330 additional prison sentences



In what was likely to be his final major use of executive authority, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of an additional 330 federal prisoners on Thursday — the most granted by a president in a single day in history.

The move brings his commutation total to 1,715, more than any other president. The vast majority are low-level drug offenders who were subject to now-outdated mandatory minimum sentences. And while Obama’s push for criminal justice reform came up short in his last two years in office, he directed his own justice department to drive a more assertive use of the president’s clemency authority.


“Proud to make this one of my final actions as President. America is a nation of second chances, and 1,715 people deserved that shot,” Obama tweeted shortly after the announcement on Thursday.

"The president set out to reinvigorate clemency, and he has done just that,” White House Counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post on Thursday, noting that Obama has offered 568 people with life sentences a chance to experience the outside world again.

Thursday’s announcement did not include any additional pardons, leaving Obama’s total for that category at 212. Cognizant of the bad optics created by other administrations’ last-minute pardons, the president issued his most high-profile reprieves on Thursday, including a commutation for Pvt. Chelsea Manning and a pardon for Gen. James Cartwright, who were both convicted following probes into leaking of classified info. Obama also commuted the sentence of the Puerto Rican independence fighter Oscar López Rivera. That meant the president had an opportunity to defend those moves at his final press conference.

Virtually all of Thursday’s clemencies went to drug offenders who appear to fit a set of criteria issued by the Justice Department in 2014, including nonviolence and completing 10 years of the sentence. Obama sought to shorten sentences that would have been less severe if the individual had been convicted under today’s laws.

The administration faced early criticism from criminal justice reform advocates for not moving fast enough on the clemency petitions. In August, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates committed to review every petition from a drug offender received up to that point.

“I’m proud to say we kept that promise,” Yates said in a statement on Thursday. “The Office of the Pardon Attorney has now processed more than 16,000 petitions since the launch of the Clemency Initiative in April 2014, ensuring that President Obama had the information he needed to evaluate worthy cases up until the final week of his presidency.”

The clemency announcements have also been notable for the names not included. There was no clemency for the two men who have become central characters in Obama’s foreign policy, the former security contractor Edward Snowden and alleged deserter Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl. Obama also did not release some perennial clemency cause celebres, like Leonard Pelletier, the Native American rights activist convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975 whose case has been taken up by Amnesty International amid questions about the fairness of his trial. Nor did Obama pardon former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, despite a robust movement in his home state that maintains his corruption prosecution was politically motivated.

A bipartisan sentencing reform compromise has stalled in Congress, and one of its chief opponents, Sen. Jeff Sessions, is poised to lead President-elect Donald Trump’s Justice Department. While the measure still has support, including from House Speaker Paul Ryan, advocates say they are increasingly shifting their focus more toward the states.

“Clemency can and should continue to play an important role in ensuring that justice is administered smartly and equally,” said Jessica Jackson Sloan of #Cut50, which has advocated an even more aggressive use of commutations. “We hope President Trump will continue granting mercy to families desperately seeking to be reunited with their loved ones.”

Releasing prisoners early can be a risky strategy, as one high-profile crime by a beneficiary can provide fodder for “Willie Horton” style ads. A Justice Department official said it’s too soon to know whether those with commuted sentences have the same rates of recidivism as others leaving prison. That data is normally measured at the five-year mark, but the program is not yet three years old.

In his blog post, Eggleston stressed to the formerly incarcerated that they have a responsibility to stay on the straight-and-narrow.

“You have been granted a second chance because the President sees the potential in you,” Eggleston wrote. “Your example will influence whether someone in similar circumstances will get his or her own second chance in the future. Make the President proud with how you use your second chance.”

