How does Barack Obama's clemency record compare to other recent presidents?

1. Raw totals: Obama’s numbers versus peers

By the end of his second term Obama had granted 1,927 clemency actions—more than any two-term president since Franklin D. Roosevelt and the highest total in decades—driven overwhelmingly by commutations rather than pardons ^{[8] [9] [2]}. That raw tally exceeded the combined total of the previous several presidents in commutations and set single-day records (including 330 commutations on January 19, 2017) ^{[1] [5]}. Still, later actions by Joe Biden would surpass Obama’s totals in overall clemency acts and in pardons, changing the historic ranking ^{[4] [8]}.

2. Type matters: commutations vs pardons

Obama’s use of clemency was unusually skewed toward commutations—shortening active prison terms—targeting long drug sentences imposed under earlier, harsher regimes; that emphasis produced far more early releases than the traditional pattern of post-sentence pardons used by many predecessors ^{[5] [6]}. This contrasts with presidents who historically issued more pardons restoring rights after sentence completion, and with presidents like Donald Trump who used clemency in a more ad hoc, pardon-focused and politically connected way ^{[7] [9]}.

3. Approval rate and process: an artifact of policy, not just mercy

Measured against applications received, Obama’s approval rate was low—around 5% of petitions—because his administration actively encouraged tens of thousands of federal inmates to apply through the Clemency Initiative, inflating the denominator and producing a high number of denials alongside the grants ^{[4] [3] [10]}. The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney statistics document how processing and backlog dynamics affect reported grant rates, underscoring that per-petition percentages can reflect policy choices about outreach as much as leniency thresholds ^{[11] [4]}.

4. Outcomes and criticism: praise, practical impact, and pushback

Supporters credit Obama with addressing what they called draconian drug sentences—he commuted hundreds serving life or extremely long terms and highlighted racial and sentencing disparities—while critics argue the initiative left many applicants in limbo and that mass, end-of-term commutations bypassed the usual deliberative norms ^{[2] [6] [5]}. Others pointed to a record number of denials alongside grants, suggesting the administration accepted systemic reform responsibility without exhaustively adjudicating each petition ^{[2] [6]}.

5. Comparing modern presidents: different metrics, different legacies

Compared to recent presidents, Obama ranks high on absolute numbers (especially commutations) but low on per-application approval rate because of deliberate outreach ^{[1] [4] [10]}. Trump granted fewer acts overall and drew critiques for favoring allies and bypassing formal Office of the Pardon Attorney processes ^{[7] [4]}. Biden later increased total acts and at times also used ad hoc pardons and commutations, reshaping the numerical leaderboard and complicating simple comparisons ^{[4] [8]}.

6. Bottom line: how to evaluate Obama against peers

Evaluation depends on the yardstick: by volume and by targeted commutations for drug offenders, Obama was transformational among recent presidents; by per-petition grant rate and by adherence to traditional, case-by-case pardon norms he appears more restrained or at least different—largely because a policy to solicit applications altered the denominator and the administration’s tactical choices changed how clemency numbers should be read ^{[1] [4] [11]}. Official DOJ tallies and contemporaneous reporting make clear that Obama’s clemency record is best understood as policy-driven and historically significant rather than simply more or less “forgiving” than other modern presidents ^{[2] [6] [11]}.