BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday said she would issue pardons for tens of thousands of people convicted of misdemeanor marijuana charges going back decades in the latest example of a state ambitiously seeking to forgive low-level drug offenders.
A pardon essentially acts as forgiveness initiated by the governor for a conviction. It does not automatically seal or expunge criminal records. The administration estimated the pardons announced Wednesday could end up benefitting hundreds of thousands of people. In 2016, Massachusetts voters approved a question legalizing pot, the same year voters in California and Nevada also legalized recreational marijuana.
The White House said at the time that Biden’s latest round of executive clemencies was meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system. Biden had said his actions would help make the “promise of equal justice a reality.”
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