WASHINGTON:
US President Joe Biden announced a pardon for five people, including the late human rights activist Marcus Garvey, on the last day of his presidency.
According to a statement issued by the White House, the famous civil rights leader Marcus Garvey, who died in 1940, has also been included in the amnesty list. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison for fraud in 1923, but was pardoned by then-President Calvin Coolidge in 1927.
Human rights organizations consider Marcus Garvey to be the first leader to organize a movement for the rights of African Americans.
The White House said in the statement that he created the Black Star Line Shipping Company and formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which works for African history and culture.
Other people pardoned by Joe Biden include Darryl Chambers, a disarmament advocate who was convicted in a nonviolent drug case.
Similarly, immigration lawyer Waridath, alias Ravi Ragbir, who was convicted in 2001, has also been pardoned.
The US President has also pardoned Don Leonard Scott, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1994 for a non-violent drug case.
The White House said Leonard Scott was elected to the Virginia State Assembly in 2019 and became the first black speaker last year.
Among those pardoned is Kemba Smith Pradia, a criminal defense attorney who was also convicted and pardoned in a non-violent drug case in 1994.
Joe Biden has also pardoned two other men convicted in the 1990s, including Ruben Peoples and Michael West, who have been said to have shown remarkable behavioral changes.
It should be noted that on the last day of his presidency, Joe Biden was also requested to release Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, as per tradition. Pakistani citizen Dr. Aafia Siddiqui has been sentenced to a long prison term by a US court and is still imprisoned in a US prison in the worst possible conditions.
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