A nonprofit leader supporting at-risk youth in New Orleans. A social worker who raises animals. A postdoctoral researcher.
They are among approximately 1,540 people whose sentences were commuted or pardoned by President Joe Biden on Thursday, in what was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history .
But not everyone has been happy with Biden’s decisions. A Republican state senator said the commutation of the sentence for a woman who stole $54 million from a small Illinois town was “a slap in the face” to residents. Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor said Biden “was absolutely wrong” when he commuted the sentence of a judge who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit prisons in exchange for bribes.
Here are some of their stories:
Fulton was pardoned after pleading guilty to participating in a payroll fraud scheme while he was a professor at a New Orleans college in the early 2000s. She was convicted of a felony and sentenced to three years of probation in 2008.
Fulton, who has two children and works as an elementary school teacher, said that for years she lived with “a sense of embarrassment and shame” about her felony conviction.
Even though she earned a master’s degree in educational leadership in 2017, Fulton felt her criminal record prevented her from applying for senior positions she thought she could fill.
“This conviction served as a mental barrier for me, limiting my ability to live fully,” Fulton said.
Nearly a decade after he first requested a presidential pardon, Fulton received a phone call this week informing him that it had been granted. “It was surprising to me, I didn’t expect a call,” Fulton said, adding that the pardon will allow him to explore more career opportunities.
A White House press release praised Fulton as “someone who goes above and beyond for his community.” For years, Fulton helped run a nonprofit supporting at-risk New Orleans youth with hot meals, clothing, shelter and mental health referrals.
Doyle asked for pardon six years ago. It had been so long that she had almost forgotten about him – until Wednesday.
“I was in shock,” Doyle said of the call she received from a Justice Department lawyer. “And honored.”
Doyle, who was once addicted to methamphetamine, pleaded guilty to drug possession and check forgery when he was 24 years old. She served more than two years in state and federal prison.
Released in 2006, Doyle decided to stay clean. She started a family, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and now works as a social worker at a behavioral health center.
Doyle requested a pardon in 2018 and didn’t hear back until 2020, when the FBI reached out — and the audit began.
“They talked to my boss, my boss’s boss, they talked to my mom’s boss, they called my doctors,” Doyle said. “They contacted just about everyone who had a relationship with me over the last 20 years.”
Once the exam is over, she will have to wait again: four years, it turned out.
“I just want people to know that they are struggling with addiction, or families to know that when they have someone in their family who is an addict, there is hope,” Doyle said THURSDAY. “It has brought me and my family so much joy, and this is just the continuation of my recovery.”
She has five children and three grandchildren, volunteers in her community, raises animals and competes in roller derby.
Crundwell was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison in 2013 for stealing about $54 million over two decades while she was in charge of the finances of Dixon, Illinois.
She was released to a halfway house program in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic before transitioning to home confinement. Biden’s commutation frees Crundwell from any restrictions.
Paul Gaziano, a lawyer who represented Crundwell in federal court, declined to comment Thursday.
Dixon Mayor Glen Hughes said he thought most of the city was probably stunned, and maybe even angry, that Biden would grant Crundwell clemency. Republican Sen. Andrew Chesney called Biden’s action “nothing short of a slap in the face to the people of Dixon.”
Dixon, best known as the childhood home of President Ronald Reagan, sued auditors and a bank after Crundwell’s theft was revealed and recovered $40 million in settlements.
Crundwell, who was a horse breeder, told a judge in 2020 that more than $15 million was repaid through the sale of her horses and other assets.
“I will do everything possible to right my mistakes,” she told the judge in a handwritten letter describing various health problems. “I have taken responsibility for my actions since day one.”
Conahan was sentenced to 17 years in prison for helping orchestrate one of the worst legal scandals in U.S. history: a scheme to send children to for-profit prisons in exchange for bribes. wine.
Biden’s decision to commute his sentence angered many in northeastern Pennsylvania, from the governor to families whose children were victimized by the disgraced former judge. Conahan had already served the vast majority of his sentence, handed down in 2011.
“I am convinced that President Biden got it completely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said Friday.
A message seeking comment was sent to an attorney who recently represented Conahan, the former Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judge.
In what became known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella closed a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from a friend of Conahan’s who had built one and was co-owner of two for- blocks of profits.
Sandy Fonzo, whose son committed suicide at age 23 after Ciavarella locked him up as a teenager, called Conahan’s commutation an “injustice.”
“I am shocked and hurt,” Fonzo said in a statement provided to The Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre. “Conahan’s actions destroyed families, including my own, and my son’s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power.”
The Juvenile Law Center, which represented plaintiffs in a $200 million civil judgment against Conahan and Ciavarella, said it “supports President Biden’s actions” but wants to see “the same kind of compassion and mercy » extended to young defendants across the country.
When he pleaded guilty in 2010, Conahan apologized to the young people he had hurt.
“The system is not corrupt,” Conahan said at the time. “I was corrupt.”
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Becklin was 21 when she got into trouble, which she said was because she was trying to get money to support her drug addiction. She pleaded guilty to a nonviolent felony charge for failing to provide police with information about a 2007 bank robbery. She served four months in a halfway house, four months on home confinement and three years probation.
She discovered she was pregnant after being incarcerated for about a year. She said she had her “aha moment” when her son was 1 year old.
“And I lived at home with my parents. I had no job, no education, no future,” Becklin said. “I had a felony on my record. I had a history of substance use, you know, all these things. And he was 1 year old. And I just remember looking at him and realizing that his whole life really depended on what I did with mine.
Within days, she said, she enrolled in a community college. She recently received her doctorate in comparative molecular biosciences from the University of Minnesota. For her doctorate, she used stem cell biology and genetic engineering to better understand how pediatric cancers develop and develop. She still works in the field of cell and gene therapy, now as a postdoctoral researcher at the university.
The White House noted in its announcement that Becklin also mentors currently or previously incarcerated individuals who seek to pursue higher education. She said she does it through a program called Prison to Professionals. They help people understand the unique issues they will face in higher education and provide them with a support network.
She said she still doesn’t know exactly how being pardoned and having her record expunged will affect her future.
“I think there was a point in my life where it really mattered whether or not I had a certain career path. But I have discovered that no matter where I am, I find my purpose and need there. And, you know, it’s a beautiful way to live,” she said.
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Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans, Ed White in Detroit, Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyo., Michael Rubinkam in Pennsylvania; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed to this report.
