WASHINGTON — On Sunday, President Joe Biden posthumously granted a pardon to Marcus Garvey, a prominent Black nationalist whose ideas greatly impacted figures like Malcolm X and numerous civil rights activists. Garvey was found guilty of mail fraud in the 1920s and was a key figure promoting racial pride. A series of additional pardons were handed out to a Virginia legislator and various advocates for immigrant rights, criminal justice reform, and initiatives targeting gun violence.
Congressional leaders had been pressing for Biden to issue a pardon for Garvey, claiming that his conviction was politically motivated, aimed at quelling the powerful voice he had become in the Black community. Following his conviction, Garvey was deported to his birthplace of Jamaica, where he lived until his death in 1940. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledged Garvey’s influence by stating that he was the first person on a large scale to imbue millions of Black individuals with a “sense of dignity and destiny.”
As Biden prepares to leave office, it remains uncertain if he will extend pardons to individuals who have been criticized or threatened by President-elect Donald Trump. Granting preemptive pardons for potential transgressions investigated by the incoming administration could test the limits of presidential authority.
Biden has already made history by issuing the most individual pardons and commutations in a presidency. He recently announced the commutation of sentences for nearly 2,500 individuals convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. Additionally, he provided a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter, in relation to gun and tax offenses.
In a unique move, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 individuals on federal death row, changing their sentences to life imprisonment. This contrasts sharply with the stance of Donald Trump, who previously oversaw a significant number of executions—13 in total—during his term, notably amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
A pardon absolves an individual of guilt and punishment, while a commutation lessens or removes the imposed punishment but does not exonerate the individual.
Among the pardoned individuals were:
— Don Scott, speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, narrowly held by Democrats. He faced a drug conviction in 1994 that resulted in an eight-year prison sentence. Scott made history in 2019 as the first Black speaker of the Virginia legislature. “I am deeply humbled to share that I have received a Presidential Pardon from President Joe Biden for a mistake I made in 1994 — one that changed the course of my life and taught me the true power of redemption,” Scott remarked.
— Ravi Ragbir, an immigrant rights advocate convicted of a nonviolent crime in 2001, was sentenced to two years in prison and was at risk of deportation to Trinidad and Tobago.
— Kemba Smith Pradia, who was sentenced to 24 years in prison after being convicted of drug-related charges in 1994. She has transitioned into advocating for prison reform, with her sentence previously commuted by President Bill Clinton in 2000.
— Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate from Wilmington, Delaware, was also pardoned. He served 17 years for a drug-related conviction and has since engaged in writing and studying issues related to gun violence.
Biden also commuted the sentences of two other individuals:
— Michelle West, serving life for her involvement in a drug conspiracy during the early 1990s, is known through her daughter’s public reflections on the difficulties of growing up with a mother incarcerated.
— Robin Peoples, sentenced to an extensive 111 years for bank robbery in the late 1990s in northwest Indiana, is noted to have faced sentences that would be significantly reduced today under current laws, according to a White House statement.
