President Biden grants end-of-year pardons to 6 former convicts

In one of his final acts of 2022, President Biden on Friday announced he was granting "full pardons" to six former convicts, whose offenses ranged from teenage consumption of drugs and alcohol to second-degree murder.

The pardon recipients vary in age and gender, but have all previously completed the various sentences for their crimes, each of which occurred decades ago, often while the recipient was still a teenager or young adult. Per a White House press release, the recipients are:

• Gary Parks Davis, 66, who pleaded guilty "to use of a communication facility (a telephone) to facilitate an unlawful cocaine transaction at age 22."
• Edward Lincoln De Coito III, 50, who pleaded guilty to "involvement in a marijuana trafficking conspiracy at age 23; his involvement was limited to serving as a courier on five or six occasions."
• Vincente Ray Flores, 37, "who, at approximately age 19, consumed ecstasy and alcohol while serving in the military; he later pleaded guilty at a special court-martial."
• Charlie Byrnes Jackson, 77, who "pleaded guilty to one count of possession and sale of distilled spirits without tax stamps" at the age of 18.
• John Dix Nock III, 72, who "pleaded guilty to one count of renting and making for use, as an owner, a place for the purpose of manufacturing marijuana plants" nearly three decades ago, though he did not actually make or sell the plants themselves.

The most significant pardon granted on Friday went to Beverly Ann Ibn-Tamas, who was convicted of second-degree murder after she killed her allegedly abusive husband in 1976. During her trial, Ibn-Tamas testified that her husband, a neurosurgeon, had beaten her with a hairbrush, and threatened her with a gun to her head. As the White House noted in its announcement, "during her trial, the court refused to allow expert testimony regarding battered woman syndrome, a psychological condition and pattern of behavior that develops in victims of domestic violence."

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"Ms. Ibn-Tamas's appeal marked one of the first significant steps toward judicial recognition of battered woman syndrome," the White House continued, adding that "her case has been the subject of numerous academic studies."