The US Justice Department will start taking applications for President Joe Biden’s mass amnesty for marijuana convictions Friday, giving the president added appeal to young people and minority groups as he heads into a re-election campaign.
(Bloomberg) — The US Justice Department will start taking applications for President Joe Biden’s mass amnesty for marijuana convictions Friday, giving the president added appeal to young people and minority groups as he heads into a re-election campaign.
Biden gave those convicted of certain federal marijuana offenses a “full, unconditional, and categorical pardon” last October. But in order to take advantage of it, those pardoned have to apply to the Office of the Pardon Attorney for a certificate of proof. The window for that application opens Friday.
To be eligible, applicants must have been convicted of simple possession of marijuana in federal court or DC Superior Court. Biden also excluded undocumented immigrants from the clemency. Those convicted of state marijuana crimes are not eligible.
The issue is salient among younger voters who tend to lean toward Democrats and who propelled Biden to victory in 2020. That bloc also helped Democrats put on a better-than-expected midterm election performance in November.
Biden’s mass amnesty is the first such use of presidential pardon power since former President Jimmy Carter gave similar clemency to men who evaded the military draft during the Vietnam War.
The number of eligible applicants isn’t large — about 6,500 convicted in federal courts, not including thousands more in the District of Columbia — but it would dwarf ex-President Barack Obama’s more limited clemency initiative.
“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said in October. “Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit.”
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