Just two days after this blog brought up the subject of Barack Obama not yet utilizing the pardon power, it has been announced that on Friday, the President gave out nine pardons, none of them particularly newsworthy!
At the same time, it was revealed that Obama denied 605 petitions for a commuted sentence and 71 requests for a pardon in the month of October, and denied 552 petitions for commuted sentences and 60 requests for a pardon in November!
By taking action on the nine petitions on December 3, however, Obama avoided setting a record for the longest time in office without issuing pardons, beating out George W. Bush by a few weeks—682 days in office, about three weeks earlier than Bush, who issued his first pardons late in December of his second year in office!