Biden pardons Garvey posthumously

Late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey was among five people pardoned by US President Joe Biden on Sunday. The outgoing president also commuted the sentences of two, the White House said in a statement.

Garvey, Jamaica’s first National Hero who died in 1940, was convicted of mail fraud in 1923 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, a sentence that was commuted by US President Calvin Coolidge in 1927.

The Jamaican is credited as the first man to organise a mass movement among African-Americans. He was also the founder of the Black Star Line shipping company and the pan-African organisation Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Democratic lawmakers have lobbied Presidents for decades for a full pardon for Garvey, arguing that the charges against him were politically motivated.

According to Reuters, the other people pardoned include Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate who was convicted of a non-violent drug offence, immigration advocate Ravidath “Ravi” Ragbir, who was convicted of a non-violent offence in 2001.

The news agency reported that Biden also pardoned Don Leonard Scott, who was convicted of a non-violent drug offence in 1994 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Scott was elected to the Virginia state legislature in 2019 and became its first Black speaker last year, the White House said.

Kemba Smith Pradia, a criminal justice advocate who was previously convicted of a non-violent drug offence in 1994, also was pardoned, reported Reuters.

Biden commuted the sentences of two others who were sentenced in the 1990s and whom he credited with remarkable rehabilitation: Robin Peoples and Michelle West, the news agency reported.

SOURCE: Jamaica Observer