On his last full day as president of the United States, Barack Obama on Thursday issued 330 sentence commutations for individuals convicted of drug offenses—the most issued on a single day in American history. The move brings Obama’s total number of clemencies as president to 1,715—the most for any U.S. president. Criminal justice reform has been a top priority of the Obama administration, but it was unable to achieve such reforms legislatively. Earlier this week, Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former Army private who leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks. On Friday at noon, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next president.
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