Civil rights activists are urging President Joe Biden to grant clemency to other prominent Black cases, such as former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, a day after he controversially pardoned his son, Hunter Biden.
Mosby was convicted on two charges of perjury and one count of filing a fake mortgage application. He is currently serving a 12-month home confinement term. Her sentence included electronic monitoring around-the-clock.
Mosby and former St. Louis attorney Kim Gardner are being supported by political strategist Angela Rye and attorney Ben Crump. They urged President Biden in a joint statement, stressing that justice is still not being served for a great number of people in this nation.
Mosby and Gardner s Legal Challenges
Once a well-known prosecutor, Mosby was found guilty of using the COVID-19 scheme to obtain retirement funds, which she then utilized to buy vacation homes. She intends to appeal the conviction and insists she is innocent. The Maryland Supreme Court has let her to continue practicing law while she awaits the outcome of her appeals, despite the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland’s attempt to suspend her license.
Gardner, the former St. Louis circuit attorney, reached a pretrial diversion bargain with federal prosecutors, avoiding indictment. She acknowledged using $5,000 in official funds improperly to pay for costs associated with former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens’ lawsuit. According to St. Louis Public Radio, the arrangement permits her to return the money within 18 months and prevent additional legal action.
Advocates demand broader justice
The instances of Mosby and Gardner have been placed by Crump and Rye into a broader framework of structural injustices in the legal system. In their statement, they draw attention to the selective nature of prosecutions and urge Biden to address more widespread injustices by using his pardon authority:
Today, thousands of people are incarcerated in federal prisons after being wrongly convicted. Hunter Biden is not the only one who was subjected to selective prosecution. In a statement, Crump added, “We welcome a conversation with President Biden to discuss ways to use his pardon power to free those others who deserve justice also.”Copy of the Link
Attorney and political strategist Angela Rye responded to President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, by saying that it’s time for Biden to pardon Marilyn Mosby. Before Mosby was given a home detention term, which has already expired, his pardon application had languished for months in the hands of the White House and the Department of Justice.
In an email sent to the Grio on May 28, Angela Rye, a member of Mosby’s legal team, stated that the pardon application was filed earlier this year. In addition to the more than 91,000 signatures urging the federal government to pardon Mosby, who rose to national prominence in 2015 when she, in her capacity as state’s attorney, charged six police officers in connection with the death of Freddie Gray, Jr., the application is still open.
Hunter Biden’s pardon and Mosby’s request for one are comparable. Rye wrote on Instagram that the same prosecutor, Leo Wise, who was successful in pursuing charges against Biden, was also looking into Mosby. She added that the lawyers urging Mosby’s pardon based their request on the same selective prosecution defense that President Biden used to support his son’s pardon.
According to Rye, they must establish a norm and apply it evenly.
What s Next?
Gardner is committed to fulfilling the conditions of her diversion arrangement, while Mosby is still fighting her conviction through appeals. Proponents are pressing Biden to take into account pardoning people they feel have been unfairly singled out by the judicial system and are calling for a more extensive discussion on justice and equality in federal prosecutions.
All eyes are on the Biden administration’s response to these demands for action as the presidential pardon issue intensifies.
