Will Donald Trump pardon prisoners incarcerated for cannabis before leaving the White House?

A group of celebrities, Republican officials, and civil rights advocates sent a letter to President Trump on Wednesday, urging him to pardon or commute the sentences of individuals incarcerated in a federal prison for nonviolent federal cannabis-related offenses.

The letter states that the signatories «are firmly convinced that justice requires the executive branch to exercise clemency in these cases. » It is accompanied by a specific list of 24 people who are currently behind bars for cannabis-related offenses, several of whom are serving life sentences.

Weldon Angelos, who was himself sentenced to a mandatory minimum term for a cannabis offense before a court reduced his sentence and released him, had already submitted an initial draft of the letter to the White House last March.

«You have expressed your support for the right of states to enforce their own cannabis laws, particularly for medical purposes,» wrote the signatories, including former NBA star Kevin Garnett. «And while there are a number of proposals before Congress to finally end the ban on cannabis, they tend to lack any real means of providing relief to those serving sentences for selling cannabis.»

«Given the timidity of this bill, the deadlock in Congress, and the imperative of freedom, clemency is the right tool to resolve this problem,» he continued. «You, and you alone, have the power to call out the gross hypocrisy of previous administrations. While cannabis has become a thriving legal market and has enriched many, your predecessors ignored the people who were serving—and continue to serve—long federal sentences for doing the same thing.»

Among the more than 50 signatories of the new letter is Alice Johnson, who appeared at the Republican National Convention and whose story was featured in pro-Trump ads after her drug sentence was commuted by the president.

Lawmakers from the Republican states of Kansas, Maine, and Missouri have also signed on, as have actor Danny Trejo, the police chief of New Haven, Missouri, and former New Mexico governor and presidential candidate Gary Johnson. They were joined by representatives from organizations such as #cut50, Marijuana Policy Project and Law Enforcement Action Partnership.

So far during his administration, Trump has granted 27 pardons and 11 commutations. The signatories of this letter expect to see an increase in clemency from the executive branch in the coming weeks, as is typical during the final weeks of a presidency.

«It’s ridiculous that we currently have a billionaire in the cannabis industry, yet we keep certain individuals in prison for doing exactly the same thing. This is just another example of a pointless and destructive criminal justice system,» he said in a press release. «I am confident that President Trump will give serious consideration to correcting some of the most egregious sentences we have brought to his attention.»

«He is the first president in modern history to commute a number of sentences during his first years in office,» he added. «Traditionally, pardons and commutations take place toward the end of a presidency, and so this pattern reassures us that we will see justice served for some of them.»

Of course, no one knows how Trump will react to the request for a series of cannabis-specific pardons.