Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Obama commuted the sentences of 111 more federal inmates Tuesday, capping a month in which he's nearly doubled the number of commutations granted during his presidency.

The breakneck pace of presidential clemency comes as the Obama White House attempts to get through a backlog of 11,477 cases that were pending as of August 11. In addition to the 325 commutations granted this month, Obama also quietly denied 2,227 cases on August 8.

The commutations — a shortening of a criminal sentence using the president's constitutional pardon power — are part of the Obama administration's two-year old clemency initiative.