Last week, President Joe Biden announced the largest single day act of clemency in modern presidential history, pardoning 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes and commuting the sentences of nearly 1500 others. The 39 pardons largely represented crimes that had been committed at young ages by people who successfully returned home and are committed community members- helping and serving wherever possible. The 1500 represented people who remain on home confinement after being released during the COVID pandemic, and who were serving draconian sentences that would be much shorter were they sentenced today. Some of those 1500 were cases from the Southern District of Indiana, Danny Harmon was one of them.
In 2011, Danny Harmon was convicted after trial on a marijuana case and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Sentenced in his mid-fifties, he believed he would die there. The Indiana Federal Community Defenders through First Assistant Sara Varner represented Mr. Harmon in 2018 on a post-conviction claim alleging that his trial attorney was constitutionally ineffective. After a hard-fought evidentiary hearing, the district court judge roundly agreed, finding that Mr. Harmon’s attorney failed him in four different ways. Because of the failures, Mr. Harmon’s case was reset, giving him the opportunity for good legal assistance that he lacked the first go round. Mr. Harmon pled guilty and was resentenced to 18 years in prison where he remained until the COVID 19 global pandemic struck in early 2020. In the close, confined spaces of prisons, the pandemic wreaked havoc. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) was passed in March of 2020 to deal with the crisis. One provision of the act allowed the Bureau of Prisons to move inmates to home confinement to complete their sentences. Over 13,000 nonviolent offenders were released, including Mr. Harmon. He returned home where he has been serving on home confinement a sentence set to expire in May of 2026.
Following the end of the critical wave of the pandemic, the future of those remaining on home detention was uncertain. In the last days of the Trump Administration, it looked as if those who had been released might be required to return to prison to complete their sentences. And for a period after President Biden declared the pandemic over in April of 2023, it looked as though Congress would force them back. These people had readjusted to being at home, bonded with their families, began working and functioning as citizens. Last week, President Biden, in an act of mercy, secured their futures by commuting the remainder of their sentences. Make no mistake, that mercy was the fruition of the hard work of those who returned home. Almost no one released under the CARES Act committed new crimes or violated the terms of their home confinement. If they had, commutation would surely have been off the table. Mr. Harmon himself never had a disciplinary violation in prison and has been flawless on home confinement as well. Speaking with Mr. Harmon, he expressed his gratitude for President Biden’s act but stated that he can’t quite yet believe it’s real. A steadfast family man, freedom will find him spending time with his family.
The IFCD celebrates along with all of those pardoned and granted clemency by President Biden. Our hearts and hopes remain with all of those who await good news in the closing days of this administration, including the forty men on death row where there will surely be another blood bath of President Biden does not act. There may be dark days ahead, but they do not tarnish today’s mercies.
