Clemency petitions soared under Obama's Clemency Initiative but have fallen since Clemency petitions and grants, by fiscal year
Presidents have generally become less forgiving over time, at least when looking at the proportion of clemency requests they have granted. Every president from McKinley to Carter granted clemency to at least 20% of those who asked for it, according to the Justice Department data. But the percentages have fallen to the single digits for every president since George H.W. Bush, including Obama, who granted clemency to just 5% of those who petitioned him for it.
Obama’s relatively low percentage, however, is largely due to the fact that his administration encouraged federal prisoners to apply for leniency under a program known as the Clemency Initiative. The program, which launched in April 2014 and ended in 2017 when Obama left office, allowed “qualified federal inmates” – those who met certain Justice Department criteria – to apply to have their prison sentences commuted. The initiative led to a surge in petitions and helps explain why Obama’s use of clemency tilted so heavily toward sentence commutations, rather than pardons.
Clemency petitions soared under  | Obama's Clemency Initiative but have  | fallen since  | Clemency petitions and grants, by fiscal year  | 12K  | 2014-17: Justice Dept.  | Clemency Initiative  | 9K  | 6K  | Received  | 2,938  | 3K  | Granted  | 18  | '80  | 10  | 20  | 90  | '00  | Note: The Clemency Initiative encouraged qualified federal  | inmates to petition to have their sentences commuted. Fisca  | years 1981 1989, 1993, 2001 2009 and 2017 span two  | administrations.  | Source: U.S Department of Justice,  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 