According to Pew Research, President Obama only granted 5% of the clemency requests he received. Compare this to earlier presidents like President Kennedy who granted 33%, President Truman who granted 41%, and President Franklin Roosevelt who granted 28%. The number of Obama pardons is also on the lower side when compared to previous presidents.
A presidential pardon is an official expression of forgiveness that removes the civil penalties—restrictions on the right to vote, hold elected office, and sit on a jury, for example—and, often, the stigma attached to criminal convictions.
But the use of the pardon is controversial, particularly because the constitutionally granted power has been used by some presidents to forgive close friends and campaign donors.
Part of the reason Roosevelt leads in the number of pardons by any president is that he served in the White House for such a long time. He was elected to four terms, in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944. Roosevelt died less than a year into his fourth term, but he is the only president to have served more than two terms .
The number of Obama pardons is also on the lower side when compared to previous presidents. President Obama granted 212 pardons during his eight years as president , President Nixon granted 863 pardons, President Carter granted 534, and President Clinton granted 396. President Obama’s legacy concerning pardons pales in comparison to some other presidents.
President obama's clemency statistics are staggering in numbers. Obama granted clemency to 1,927 individuals. While President Obama left an executive clemency legacy, it is important to look at the breakdown of this legacy compared to former presidents. However, when you break down the numbers, President Obama is on the lower percentage end of total clemency petitions granted. According to Pew Research, President Obama only granted 5% of the clemency requests he received. Compare this to earlier presidents like President Kennedy who granted 33%, President Truman who granted 41%, and President Franklin Roosevelt who granted 28%.
President Obama was also notable in the amount of commutations granted at once. In 2016, President Obama granted 583 commutations and six pardons. In one of the last weeks of his presidency, President Obama granted clemency to 273 federal inmates. Only a few days later, President Obama commuted 330 sentences of federal inmates in one day. This set a record. Over 80% of President Obama’s commutations were granted in his last six months as president.
But, President Obama’s clemency grants did not come without public criticism. Perhaps the most public outrage came when President Obama commuted the 35-year sentence of Chelsea Manning. Manning served seven years of a 35-year sentence at the time of the commutation. Manning was convicted of leaking sensitive military and intelligence documents to Wikileaks. Many in the military and intelligence communities were angered by this action. This also was a departure from the impetus for his clemency initiative, which was to target lower-level drug offenders.
Obama pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,927 convicts during his two terms in the White House. According to the Pew Research Center: "Barack Obama ended his presidency having granted clemency to more people convicted of federal crimes than any chief executive in 64 years.
Still, all modern presidents have used their power to pardon, to varying degrees. The president who issued the most pardons is Franklin Delano Roosevelt, according to data kept by the U.S. Department of Justice, which helps to evaluate and execute applications for forgiveness.
But the use of the pardon is controversial, particularly because the constitutionally granted power has been used by some presidents to forgive close friends and campaign donors.
A presidential pardon is an official expression of forgiveness that removes the civil penalties—re strictions on the right to vote, hold elected office, and sit on a jury, for example—and, ...
Like pardons, the power to issue a commutation for a federal crime rests with the president . It is considered an offshoot of the president's pardoning power; the president may grant any sort of pardon, commutation, or other "reprieve" for any federal crime except impeachment. Murse, Tom.
President Donald Trump, too, faced criticism over his first pardon. He forgave the criminal contempt conviction against a former Arizona Sheriff and campaign supporter Joe Arpaio, whose crackdown on illegal immigration became a flashpoint during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump said:
President Barack Obama's use of his pardon power was relatively rare compared to other presidents. But he granted clemency —which includes pardons, commutations, and remissions—more times than any president since Harry S. Truman.