The purpose of the executive pardon is to act as a check and balance on the criminal justice system. It is a way of righting wrongful convictions and cancelling excessive punishments. During the 1980s...

The purpose of the executive pardon is to act as a check and balance on the criminal justice system. It is a way of righting wrongful convictions and cancelling excessive punishments. During the 1980s and 1990s, Congress passed mandatory sentencing legislation that resulted in decades of imprisonment, even life terms, for nonviolent, first-time drug offenders. Public sentiment has changed and public opinion now wants to eliminate long sentences for nonviolent drug possession and distribution which disproportionally affected many African–Americans and other minorities. Congress has been slow to respond to the task of reducing sentences and correcting past sentencing decisions. President Obama supports the move to reduce what is perceived as excessively long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses and has used his power of executive pardon to shorten the sentences of over 300 convicted drug offenders. However, there are over 30,000 applications by prisoners for a presidential pardon. Public pressure for executive pardons to set free nonviolent drug offenders is growing. Should the President take aggressive action to correct overly harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenses and use his or her pardon power to shorten the sentences of tens of thousands of inmates rather than just a few hundred? Explain.