On his final full day in office, on Sunday, January 19, President Biden announced that he leveraged his clemency power to pardon Kemba Smith Pradia, who was previously convicted and sentenced to 24 years in federal prison.
Smith Pradia was a college student when she became involved in an abusive relationship with Peter Hall, a drug dealer. Throughout their relationship, she endured repeated abuse and feared for her safety. According to the Legal Defense Fund, despite never selling or using drugs, Smith Pradia was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine in 1994 after witnessing some of Hall’s illegal activities. She was later held accountable for his actions following his murder.
At the time, stringent federal sentencing laws led to her receiving a 24 ½-year prison sentence without the possibility of parole. Smith Pradia, a first-time non-violent offender, was also seven months pregnant at the time of her sentencing. Her case drew national attention and garnered support from various organizations, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. This eventually led to President Bill Clinton granting her executive clemency in 2000 after she had served nearly seven years in federal prison.
Smith’s story was turned into a film titled “KEMBA,” which is available to watch on BET+.
This pardon will now wipe her criminal slate clean.
“Today, I am exercising my clemency power to pardon 5 individuals and commute the sentences of two individuals who have demonstrated remorse, rehabilitation and redemption,” Biden said in an official statement. “These clemency recipients have each made significant contributions to improving their communities.”
Since her release in 2000, Smith Pradia has advocated for raising awareness of domestic violence, criminal justice and racial equity at the helm of her nonprofit foundation. Smith Pradia has also attempted to earn her law degree but has been unable to due to her criminal conviction.
“One of the things I experienced while in law school was thinking about my criminal conviction and how I would have to go through a special process to even be admitted to the bar,” Smith Pradia shared during a January 19 news conference held by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “This pardon will allow me the opportunity to not have limits on my education.”
Between 1986 and 1991, the number of Black women imprisoned on drug-related charges jumped 828 percent per a 1995 report released by The Sentencing Project titled “Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System: Five Years Later.” According to the report, when Kemba Smith Pradia was convicted, Black women were the fastest-growing incarcerated population in the country.
Even today, Black women are still being incarcerated at an alarming rate. While they make up 7.7 percent of the total U.S. population and 15.3 percent of the female population, Black women represented 29 percent of incarcerated women, according to the 2020 Census.
“{Smith Pradia’s} story is not a unique one,” said Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of Legal Defense Fund, during a news conference.
“She is a unique and exceptional individual, but sadly, her interaction with the criminal legal system is not. There are many women and other non-violent drug offenders who have labored under the cloud of a criminal conviction and many of whom are still languishing in prison.”
Nelson continues: “What President Biden’s actions have done is show us that society, lawmakers and politicians have a second chance to get public safety policy right.”
Since her release, Smith Pradia has been outspoken on issues related to criminal justice, domestic violence, women’s empowerment and racial equity through her nonprofit foundation. She says that the pardon will allow her to continue her mission.
“Today, I dropped to my knees, thanking God for this moment,” the activist says. “I am overwhelmed with gratitude and humbled by the news that I have been granted a full pardon by President Joe Biden. This incredible act of grace not only expunges my criminal record and restores my rights but also reaffirms the belief that our past does not define our future.”
President Biden granted clemency to several others on Sunday. Among those pardoned was Don Scott, the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. Convicted of a drug offense in 1994, Scott served eight years in prison before becoming an attorney and, in 2019, making history as the first Black speaker of the Virginia House.
Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate from Wilmington, Delaware, also received a pardon. Having served 17 years for a drug offense, Chambers has since dedicated his efforts to researching and writing about solutions to gun violence in his community.
President Biden made a posthumous pardon for Marcus Garvey, the Black Nationalist leader who was convicted of mail fraud over a century ago—a charge widely believed to have been politically motivated. The president also commuted the sentences of Robin Peoples and Michelle West, with their sentences now set to expire on February 18, 2025.
West, a first-time non-violent offender who was sentenced to life, plus 50 years, plus 5 years probation in 1994 under War On Drugs era laws. She served 32 years. Now, her criminal record will be expunged. “I am overjoyed and deeply grateful that President Biden has commuted my mom’s life sentence,” West’s daughter Miquelle West shared in a statement.
“I was only a little girl when my mom dropped me off for school one morning and never picked me up. That was the last time I hugged my mom outside of prison. I have grown up and lived my entire adult life under the cloud of ‘mandatory life in prison.’ Today, after more than 30 years hoping and advocating every day that her life sentence could somehow be reduced, the clouds have parted. I finally see the sunshine and a bright future for us both.”
President Biden’s decision to pardon several people on his last full day in office reflect part of his administration’s broader clemency efforts, which have become a defining aspect of his presidency.
To date, Biden has granted more individual pardons and commutations than any of his recent predecessors. Just days before Sunday’s announcement, he commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 individuals convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, and in December, made headlines with a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, who faced charges related to gun and tax offenses.This decision also follows Biden’s earlier move to commute the sentences of 37 out of 40 people on federal death row, converting their sentences to life imprisonment.
Reflecting on her pardon, Smith Pradia shared, “I want to extend my deepest gratitude to President Biden and his administration for their commitment to criminal justice reform and for believing in the transformative power of second chances.”
