“American communities, disproportionately Black and Brown, have long borne the scars of the Drug War. Extreme and racist sentences for crack cocaine offenses tore apart families. Children grew up visiting their parents behind bars. Those parents are now elders, yearning to hold their grandchildren. Justice is served by allowing these individuals to return home. Their debt to society was long ago paid.” — Kara Gotsch, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project

Chief Justice John Marshall described a presidential grant of clemency as an “act of grace.” The President’s constitutional power to grant pardons and reprieves descends from the “prerogative of mercy” of English law.

Few acts of clemency exemplify the ideals of grace and mercy more fully than President Biden’s historic commutation of the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.

It was the largest single-day commutation in American history, coming less than a month after another historic act of clemency, sparing the lives of 37 people sentenced to death in federal courts.

Together, these commutations have cemented President Biden’s legacy as a champion of justice, civil rights and racial reconciliation.

The commutations of drug sentences address a shortcoming in the First Step Act, which the National Urban League has advocated for years to repair.

Too many people have been incarcerated for too long based on outdated and racist sentencing laws. Black men especially have suffered under our current sentencing regime that still charges crack cocaine offenses 18 times more harshly than powder cocaine at the federal level.

The National Urban League and our partners in the civil rights community have worked tirelessly to close the gaps in our drug sentencing laws. In November, the leaders of the eight legacy civil rights organizations wrote a letter to President Biden asking to remedy the extensive harm done to Black and Brown communities caused by the War on Drugs through commutations, and he delivered.

Further, the death penalty has ensnared hundreds of innocent defendants. The National Urban League has long opposed the death penalty in all cases. The death penalty has proven to be wildly discriminatory in every aspect. This is true in the federal system, just as in the states. 

In his commutation order, President Biden acknowledged the racially disparate impact of the death penalty and committed to ending it on the federal level. His Department of Justice paused executions, a welcome reprieve after the first Trump administration’s gruesome execution spree. The cases of the 37 men whose lives were spared manifest all the profound flaws that inevitably mar the death penalty, including significant racial disparities. Black Americans are seven times more likely to be falsely convicted of serious crimes compared to white Americans. Among the 37 were those prosecuted by almost exclusively white attorneys and convicted by all-white juries, the intellectually disabled, seriously mentally ill or brain damaged, those who faced execution though they did not personally kill anyone, and those whose convictions or death sentences were secured through the use of misleading or unreliable scientific evidence.

President Biden is a man of faith, courage and principle. His historic acts of grace and mercy manifest all of those qualities.

“President Biden has demonstrated one of the strongest commitments to racial justice in American history,” Morial said. “Today’s historic decision will allow people to come home to their families sooner and give communities the opportunity to reunite and rebuild.”

“We commend President Biden for his commitment to justice and equality even in his last days in office. As we prepare to enter a new era, today’s actions are a reminder of what real leadership looks like.”

The writer is the President/ CEO of the National Urban League.