Outgoing US President Joe Biden said on Thursday (Dec 12) that he was pardoning 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes and commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 others who were serving long prison terms.

The moves come over a week after the president signed an unconditional pardon for his son Hunter.

Officials said last week that the White House was listening to demands for Biden to extend the same grace to thousands of people wronged by the US judicial system.

Biden said the people he granted clemency would have received shorter sentences if charged under today's laws, policies and practises.

Sources had told Reuters last week that the pardons being discussed included those convicted of nonviolent drug offences and people identified by civil rights groups as unjustly incarcerated.

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