Graded on Mercy: How the Last Five Presidents Actually Used — or Abused — the Pardon Power
Why a Report Card for Mercy
Presidencies are usually judged on legislation passed and wars ended. But for the tens of thousands of Americans with federal convictions, the single most consequential act a president takes may be a signature on a clemency warrant. pardon49k.org has reviewed the clemency records of the last five administrations and scored each on three measures: volume, accessibility of the process, and whether the beneficiaries were the powerless or the connected.
Gerald Ford: The Preemptive Gamble — Grade: B
Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon remains the most controversial single act of clemency in American history, and it defined his presidency. Yet Ford also granted roughly 380 additional pardons and commutations during a truncated term, operating with a small staff and no modern review apparatus. His clemency record is a study in one enormous, nation-splitting decision followed by quiet, conventional mercy. Volume was modest; the precedent — that a president might use the power to close a national wound — has never been replicated at the same scale.
Jimmy Carter: The Amnesty President — Grade: B+
Carter's first-day executive action pardoned hundreds of thousands of Vietnam-era draft resisters — arguably the largest act of categorical clemency ever issued. Beyond that signature move, his individual grants were steady but unspectacular. Carter understood clemency as a healing instrument, not a personal favor, and his willingness to act immediately upon taking office remains the benchmark for what a president can do before the machinery of caution sets in.
Ronald Reagan Through George H.W. Bush: The Quiet Decline — Grade: C
The 1980s and early 1990s saw clemency wither into a rare and ritually administered gesture. Grant rates fell, backlogs grew, and the Office of the Pardon Attorney increasingly functioned as a filter rather than a facilitator. Neither administration scandalized anyone with its pardons; that was precisely the problem. Mercy that almost never arrives is functionally identical to mercy denied.
Bill Clinton: The High-Wire Act — Grade: C-
Clinton granted more clemency than his immediate predecessors — over 400 — and his commutations for drug offenders, including the high-profile cases of Kemba Smith and Dorothy Gaines, signaled a growing awareness of sentencing injustice. But the 2001 departure-eve pardons, including the notorious Marc Rich matter, poisoned public trust and taught future presidents to fear the power rather than wield it. Accessibility was middling; the beneficiaries skewed, in the final hours, toward those with connections. The damage lasted decades: the political scar tissue from Clinton's exit made successors more timid, and petitioners paid the price.
Barack Obama: The Commutation President — Grade: A-
No modern president approached Obama's clemency output: more than 1,700 commutations, overwhelmingly for individuals serving draconian crack and powder cocaine sentences from the worst era of the drug war. The initiative was a genuine policy intervention — thousands of families reunited, thousands of years of excessive incarceration erased. The asterisk is telling, however. Obama's pardon grants (as opposed to commutations) were comparatively few, the application process remained opaque, and the backlog grew on his watch. He proved a president could move mountains through clemency — and left behind a system still too slow for everyone else.
Donald Trump: The Loyalty Ledger — Grade: D
Trump's clemency record inverted the accessibility test. Grants flowed readily to celebrities, allies, and cases championed by personal connections, while the ordinary petitioner's odds remained dismal. Whatever one thinks of individual recipients, the pattern was unmistakable: clemency as a favor economy rather than a justice mechanism. For the 49,000-plus Americans whose petitions sit unread, the lesson was bitter — access, not merit, moved the pen.
Joe Biden: Volume Without Velocity — Grade: B
Biden leaves office having issued more individual pardons and commutations than any modern predecessor, including categorical pardons for simple federal marijuana possession and for LGBTQ veterans convicted under the former ban on service. His early, narrowly tailored proclamations hinted at a new model: using the power categorically to correct systemic wrongs. Yet the individual petition backlog persisted, and too many applicants still waited years without acknowledgment.
The Verdict
Across five presidencies, one pattern holds: clemency thrives only when a president treats it as a policy instrument rather than a political hazard. Carter proved categorical action works on day one. Obama proved systemic commutation can repair an era of bad law. Every other lesson is a warning. The next occupant of the White House will inherit a backlog, a broken pipeline, and a fully constitutional authority to fix it. The grades are in. The homework is done. What remains is the will to act.
