“They tell me there’s 2,500 people here looking for a pardon,” President Joe Biden told a crowd gathered on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday. Those words did not precede an announcement of any actual clemency requests being granted to the 16,396 people currently petitioning this administration for a commutation or a pardon. Instead, they were said, in jest, just before the POTUS “pardoned” two turkeys, ironically sending them to an “interpretive center” where they will be held captive, presumably for the rest of their lives.
On November 20th, 60 members of Congress signed and delivered to President Biden a letter imploring him to utilize the clemency power uniquely bestowed upon his office while he still has them.
“As President, clemency is a potent tool to remedy the harms of mass incarceration,” the letter states. ”The pardon power is an innate part of our nation’s legal system and expressly mentioned in the United States Constitution. Now is the time to use your clemency authority to rectify unjust and unnecessary criminal laws passed by Congress and draconian sentences given by judges. The grant of pardons and commutations and the restoration of rights will undoubtedly send a powerful message across the country in support of fundamental fairness and furthering meaningful criminal justice reform..
“So many people who are serving extensive sentences today are there because of crimes that are victimless. That is astonishing, and it should be dealt with,” said Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) earlier this month at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol building in support of the letter.
This week, President Biden replied to the turkeys, rather than to his longtime allies in Congress, “Based on your temperament and your commitment to being productive members of society, I hereby pardon Peach and Blossom.”
The crowd chuckled. The turkeys gobbled. The cameras flashed and the tone-deaf made-for-media event was over.
Edwin Rubis has served 27 years of a 40 year federal prison sentence based on non-violent cannabis trafficking charges from the late 1990s.
His is a textbook example of the “victimless” crimes and “draconian” sentencing being lamented in the letter endorsed by five dozen sitting Congresspeople. The “temperament” of the court system that Rubis faced in the late 1990s was fueled by the passage the the 1994 Crime Bill, co-sponsored by then-Senator Joe Biden – legislation that many activists and historians alike agree contributed to the mass incarceration, and racial disparity, that has plagued this country for so long.
In those 27 years of incarceration, with a record reflecting nothing but good behavior, Rubis has earned three college degrees and completed 30+ rehabilitation programs. He looks forward to a career in counseling once free.
Edwin Rubis and hundreds more federal prisoners like him, doing hard time for non-violent cannabis crimes, are seeking commutation. These are human beings committed to being productive members of society.
It is time for President Biden to get serious about human rights and mass incarceration.
It is time to free Edwin Rubis.
To learn more visit https://beardbrospharms.com/media-room-2/edwin-rubis/ or contact: freedomgrowforever88@gmail.com
You can read the full Press Release HERE
You can donate directly to this cause HERE
About Freedom Grow
Freedom Grow is an all-volunteer non-profit 501c3 organization helping cannabis prisoners regain freedom while supporting their sacrifices through ’The Wish Program’. The Wish Program helps prisoners with commissary money, books, magazines, family outreach, and public education.
This news article contains the opinion of Bill Levers, and while subjective, the facts of the story do not intend to present false or misleading information on the convicted individual or the legal matter and facts herein.
