Pardoned by Biden: ‘I dropped to my knees and I thanked God’

Among the round of pardons issued by President Biden on his last day in office was Kemba Smith Pradia. Pradia was a college student when she found herself in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend, who was also selling drugs. Though she never handled or dealt drugs herself, Kemba was sentenced to 24.5 years in federal prison. Pradia and Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund join Ali just after the historic announcement. Pradia’s case exemplifies a broken justice system and the war on drugs – a system that trapped first-time, non-violent drug offenders with lengthy mandatory sentence minimums. With the help of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, her sentence was commuted by President Clinton in 2000. Today, more than 24 years later, she has been fully pardoned by President Biden.

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