In a move that once again underscores his disdain for law and order, Joe Biden further weakened confidence in the American justice system by commuting the sentences of 15 convicts from Ohio. Despite their guilt in a variety of federal crimes, these individuals now find themselves equally free as the ordinary, law-abiding citizen, a truly baffling decision. It’s part of Biden’s large-scale mission to commute sentences, with Ohio being just a drop in the nearly 1,500 persons granted clemency nationwide.
This commutation spree, although framed as a humanitarian action, raises serious questions about the priorities of the current administration. Operating under a veneer of compassion during the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden has deemed these convicts successful candidates for reintegration into their families and communities. Unfortunately, the White House’s confidence in such reintegration might be misplaced.
The roster of commutations is no less alarming. Among those granted these undeserved freedoms is Jimmy Dimora, a previous Cuyahoga County commissioner, aged 69. Dimora was brought to justice in 2012 on charges of bribery, extortion, and racketeering. Astonishingly, much of his guilty activity involved doling out public jobs, steering public contracts, and influencing decision-makers in Cleveland in return for more than a quarter-million dollars in bribes.
In a similar vein, another convict, Michael E. Davis, 55, convicted for peddling methamphetamine, saw his sentence wiped out. Following Davis on the list is JaJuan Godsey, 45, who landed a 20-year prison sentence in 2012 for drug trafficking in Lima. Similarly, Tremayne Guin, 54, previously sentenced to a decade behind bars for disseminating heroin and fentanyl in the Cleveland area, is now a free man.
Biden’s seemingly blind campaign of forgiveness also granted clemency to Delores Knight. At 79, Knight was responsible for a jaw-dropping $8 million healthcare fraud scheme in Northeast Ohio. She was sentenced in 2017 to a decade in prison. Similarly, Don Maigari saw his 2018 prison sentence evaporate under Biden’s questionable policy. Prosecutors had argued that Maigari, a resident of Akron, ordered a significant quantity of a fentanyl-related drug from China.
And the list of beneficiaries of this questionable policy doesn’t end there. Marquis Reynolds, a 44-year-old from Youngstown convicted of drug trafficking, and Rudolph Small, a 73-year-old Toledo resident implicated in a drug conspiracy, have also been given a ticket to freedom. The former received a 5-year prison sentence in 2022 whilst the latter was given an 11-year sentence back in 2017.
Others walking free because of Biden’s reckless policy include Tracy Bias of West Portsmouth, who was found guilty of drug-related offenses and required to forfeit the proceeds from three pain clinics he operated. Allen Carnes, part of a heroin trafficking ring in Cincinnati, and Rodney Deloach, guilty of fentanyl distribution, also had their sentences overturned in the decision.
Then there was Christopher Hunter, found guilty in 2007 of cocaine possession and firearm possession by a convicted felon. He was sentenced to spend 27 years in prison. Thomas Parenteau was another convict whose extensive list of charges didn’t prevent his inclusion in Biden’s clemency policy. Parenteau, a Columbus-area homebuilder, had been found guilty of bank and wire fraud, tax conspiracy, and witness tampering, among other charges.
Two other convicts who certainly didn’t deserve the benefits of a clemency policy were Jeremiah Pride, Jr., and Charles Goff, Jr. Pride was arrested in Cincinnati in 2017 on charges related to methamphetamine distribution, while Goff was sentenced to a total of 45 years in prison for being part of what the Drug Enforcement Agency described as a ‘massive drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy’. Both of these convicts also benefited from Biden’s decision.
Alongside this staggering list of sentence commutations, Biden has also found time to pardon four Ohio residents. In another display of a lack of respect towards the justice system, Duran Brown, 44, Kim Haman, 75, Jamal King, 53, and James Russell Stidd, 79, have had their criminal records swept clean.
The Department of Justice explains that a pardon ‘is an expression of forgiveness and can help eliminate some of the consequences of a conviction’, while a commutation reduces a federal sentence without eradicating the conviction record. In Biden and Harris’s America, it seems that such pardons and commutations are handed out liberally, regardless of the severity of the crime or the impact on victims.
Despite the official explanations detailing the purpose of pardons and commutations, it’s clear that they are scrambled interpretations in the current administration’s hand. With the inundation of pardons and sentence commutations, it’s inevitable that many Americans are currently doubting the soundness of Biden’s judgment. Given his past decisions, these feelings of uncertainty are, disappointingly, well-founded.