U.S. President Barack Obama pardoned two prisoners and commuted the sentences of 95 others on Friday, continuing the presidential tradition of granting clemency during Christmastime.
Obama said the grant is "another step forward in upholding our fundamental ideals of justice and fairness."
"I still want to work with Congress—both Democrats and Republicans—to reform our criminal justice system," he said.
Most of the commuted sentences were given to drug offenders but also included 15 gun crimes related to the main offence and one armed bank robbery, USA Today reported.
To date, President Obama has commuted the sentences of 184 prisoners—more than any president since Lyndon Johnson, who commuted 226.
Law professor Mark Osler of the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis questioned why President Obama granted so many clemencies in December.
"Why can't we have this good spirit all year?" he said, adding that pardons and commutations in December "is a sign of a broken process."
"It's even worse if a president is 'saving up' good petitions to grant at the end of the year. That means that men and women are spending months in prison so that a political show can be scheduled for 'the most wonderful time of the year,'" he said.
An analysis showed that 60 percent of clemency grants by the president came in December, more than any other president except Richard Nixon.
"How is it admirable to let applications pile up in the White House? Are they deciding, then sitting on them? Not good. Are they piling them up then deciding them quickly? Not good," said political scientist P.S. Ruckman Jr.
The President vowed to issue more pardons and commutations next year. Many drug convicts were sentenced to long prison terms for trafficking despite the small amount of drugs.
