President Trump on Wednesday issued full and unconditional pardons to two Washington, D.C., police officers convicted after a chase that killed a young Black man in 2020, an episode that led to days of protests and clashes in the nation’s capital.
Mr. Trump granted clemency to Officer Terence Sutton of the Metropolitan Police Department, who was sentenced last year to more than five years in prison for second-degree murder and obstruction of justice in the unauthorized pursuit, which killed the man, 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown. Officer Sutton was the first D.C. police officer to be convicted of murder for actions on duty.
The other pardon recipient, Lt. Andrew Zabavsky, was sentenced to four years in prison not directly for the killing of Mr. Hylton-Brown, but for conspiring with Mr. Sutton to cover up the deadly police chase. The two had been free pending the outcome of their appeals.
Issuing the pardons was not the first high-profile act of clemency during Mr. Trump’s first week of his term, and was one that now involves him in a case that incited backlash against the police department operating just outside the White House.
Just two days after he issued clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — including some accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers — Mr. Trump used his power to give a reprieve to the officers convicted in Mr. Hylton-Brown’s death.
On Tuesday, he had hinted at the pardons, which prevent any punishment associated with the convictions.