Former President Joe Biden has formally left the White Home to make manner for President Donald Trump 2.0 and his administration. However earlier than leaving workplace, Biden made a bunch of pardons, setting the file for most pardons and sentence commutations by a president in a single time period.
Among the many folks on Biden’s pardon checklist have been almost 2,500 individuals who have been serving disproportionately lengthy sentences for drug convictions, together with Kemba Smith Pradia who was convicted on a non-violent drug offense in 1994 and sentenced to 24 years in jail.
Though Smith by no means used or offered medication herself, she was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine as a consequence of her involvement in an abusive relationship with a drug seller, in keeping with the Authorized Protection Fund. Smith served simply over six years of that sentence earlier than President Invoice Clinton commuted her sentence on December 22, 2020.
Since her launch, Smith has labored tirelessly to help victims of home abuse and as an advocate for prison justice and civil rights points by her Kemba Smith Basis. Now, Biden’s pardon will take away restrictions on Smith’s proper to vote, maintain state or native workplace, or sit on a jury.
In an announcement posted on Instagram, Smith thanked President Biden for serving to her get a second probability.
“At this time, I dropped to my knees, thanking God for this second. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude and humbled by the information that I’ve been granted a full pardon by President Joe Biden,” she wrote partially. “This unimaginable act of grace not solely expunges my prison file and restores my rights but in addition reaffirms the idea that our previous doesn’t outline our future.”
Kara Gotsch, govt director of the Sentencing Undertaking, applauded President Biden for his actions, which affect communities of shade whose lives are sometimes impacted by unjust sentencing legal guidelines.
“Merciless and extreme jail sentences which have overwhelmingly harmed Black communities have been the cornerstone of federal drug coverage for generations,” she stated in an announcement. “The Sentencing Undertaking commends President Biden’s daring, corrective use of his clemency powers which can assist outline his legacy.”