Maryland governor says he will pardon 175,000 marijuana convictions to right ‘historical wrongs’

Maryland governor Wes Moore says his plan to issue a mass pardon of 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions will ‘right a lot of historical wrongs’. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

The governor of the US state of Maryland has promised to issue a mass pardon of 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions.

Wes Moore told the Washington Post in an interview published on Sunday that he would make the mass pardon on Monday morning. He said the timing was meant to coincide with this week’s Juneteenth holiday, a day that marks the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.