Biden sets record with first-term clemency grants, here's how others presidents rank

In a statement last week announcing the new clemency actions, Biden said America "was built on the promise of possibility and second chances."

Biden's lengthy list sparked mixed reaction from some lawmakers and criminal justice reform advocates, who questioned the administration's decision-making in determining prisoners that were eligible for clemency. 

That includes former Illinois city comptroller Rita Crundwell, who, in 2012, pleaded guilty to a nearly $55 million embezzlement scheme, and former Pennsylvania judge Michael Conahan, who was convicted in 2011 for his role in a "Kids-for-Cash" scheme, in which children were sent to for-profit detention centers in return for millions of dollars of kickbacks from the private prisons. 

Biden's decision to include Conahan on his list of prisoners granted clemency was sharply criticized Friday by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who had been considered on Vice President Kamala Harris' short-list for running mate earlier this year.

Shapiro said Friday he thinks Biden got it "absolutely wrong" in granting clemency to Conahan, saying the decision has "created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania." 

"Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart," Shapiro said of the for-profit detention center scandal.

Truman, who served as president from 1945 to 1953, granted clemency to 2,030 individuals during his two terms in office - slightly outpacing Obama's list. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected president four times, granted a total of 3,687 pardons, sentence commutations and other acts of clemency during his time in the White House. After Roosevelt died in office during his fourth term, the U.S. Constitution was ratified to limit all future presidents to two terms in office.

Others noted the differences between individuals included on Biden's clemency list and those who saw reduced or pardoned sentences under Obama.

But critics have noted the stark differences between the number of individuals selected for clemency under each president - and any relationship to a sitting commander in chief.

The Obama administration, for example, largely focused its commutations and reductions on nonviolent drug offenders, including many who had been sentenced under mandatory minimum sentencing laws passed by Congress in the late 1980s. 

These clemency grants came under sharp criticism by some Republicans, who accused Obama of imposing his political will to end certain mandatory minimum sentences - which many argued at the time minimized the "lawmaking authority" of Congress.

But Biden's clemency grants also far outpace his predecessor, Donald Trump, during his first term in office. 

Between 2017 and 2021, Trump granted just 143 pardons and 93 sentence commutations - amounting to just 2% of the clemency applications that his administration received, according to available Justice Department data. 

Some noted that the individuals selected for clemency during Trump's first term also appear to bear a very different list of criteria compared to former presidents.

Such recommendations are not necessary for clemency, but presidents in recent memory have relied on the DOJ for input into worthy recipients for pardons and commutations.