Owner: Pardon Power URL:http://pardonpower.com Join Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:47:35 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: This blog is dedicated to following the very latest news regarding presidential pardons and the pardon power as exercised in each state. Type the name of a state in the box at the top left hand corner of this page to search for all related news items. Com Site statistics:Click here
Campaign 08: Vetting Mrs. Clinton Softly 2008-03-08 00:00:00 I recently observed that "vetting" in the dictionary of Hillary Clinton
appears to mean to provide "clumsy rebuttals to scrutiny without significant consequence." You could hardly find a better example of my reasoning than in a CNN transcript that can be found here. On casual review, what stands out is 1) this very active - and therefore "experienced" - member of the White House for eight years knew nothing about her husband, the deputy White House counsel, her husband's brother, her own brother, her campaign treasurer or her own legal advisor. These individuals were into pardon scandals up to their ears. But she knew nothing about any of it. What also stands out is that 2) she refuses to condemn the controversial last-minute pardons of Marc Rich in the face of a direct question and a comm Read more:Campaign
Campaign 08: Clinton Vetting (Update) 2008-03-07 17:48:00 The Associated Press has just released an article which bounces off of the USA Today article on non-disclosure of documents in the Clinton
Presidential Library (discussed here). The AP reports that the library released 2,830 pages of documents this week on pardons President Bill Clinton considered for Marc Rich and others during his last months in office but withheld another 1,114 pages. The documents, again, were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by USA Today when the library first began accepting such requests. The AP says the documents "show intense lobbying by celebrities, politicians and foreign leaders." Among them, former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, who sought a pardon for kidnapping his first wife and their children. See complete story here. Read more:Campaign
, Update
Illinois: Report 2008-03-07 16:26:00 It is reported here and here that Governor Rod Blagojevich has gotten nearly 2,800 clemency requests since he stepped into office five years ago and has granted only 67 pardons. An additional 1,160 requests were denied and the remaining 1,500 remained in limbo. The figures have taken on significance since it has been learned that one of Blagojevich's rare pardons was given to Chandra Gill, an administrator at a school that mistakenly received a $1 million state grant. In 2006, the latest year for which the Prisoner Review Board has issued an annual report, Blagojevich got 651 clemency requests. He granted one, denied 24 and took no action on the rest. Read more:Illinois
New Mexico: Rejection 2008-03-07 13:53:00 Gov. Bill Richardson (D) has rejected a pardon request from one Jimmie Rae Gordon Jr., who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for 11 counts of fraud over $2,500 and four counts of being an unlicensed broker who sold unregistered securities and made fraudulent offers to sell securities. The request was denied because of "strong opposition" by victims of the fraud and after "carefully considering Mr. Gordon's conduct while in prison." See story here. Read more:Mexico
, New Mexico
North Carolina: Pardon Forgery 2008-03-07 11:56:00 Michael Lorraine Lord is about to serve a 48-hour jail sentence. His crime? While seeking employment in June 2006, he presented a forged letter from former governor Jim Hunt's office pardoning a 1994 conviction. In actuality, his clemency request had been denied. Lord, who had served as a county administrator and town manager also got two years probation, a $5,000 fine and court costs. Assistant District Attorney John Criscitiello says, "This is the most brazen crime I have seen in my time as a prosecutor." Lord's attorney says that his client exercised "very poor judgment." See full story here. Read more:Carolina
, North
, North Carolina
, Pardon
Campaign 08: Pardon the Vetting, Mrs. Clinton 2008-03-07 08:19:00 Hillary Clinton
loves to take credit for being an active participant in her husband's administration and boasts that she has been "vetted" as a candidate many times over. But USA Today reports that archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons that the former president approved, including clemency for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich. The decision to do so is "based on guidance provided by Bill Clinton that restricts the disclosure of advice he received from aides, prevents public scrutiny of documents that would shed light on how he decided which pardons to approve from among hundreds of requests." The article also notes:... Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., criticized Sen. Clinton this week for not doing more t Read more:Campaign
, Pardon
Comment: Defending FALN Pardons?! 2008-03-06 23:18:00 In an editorial piece in today's Los Angles Times entitled, "The Times' Joe McCarthy," Karin Pally (don't even ask me!) attempts to take Jonah Goldberg to task for a number of things. I noticed that, in the process, she had this to say:Goldberg then moves on to the Clintons, claiming that Bill Clinton pardoned Puerto Rican "separatist terrorists" and that this action was "perceived" as a way to gain votes for Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign. Who were these terrorists and what did they do? The prisoners were members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation. None of these prisoners had been convicted of bombings or violent offenses, and all had served 14 years or longer in prison, longer than the time usually served for such crimes. No one from the FALN was pardoned. Instead, 16 prisoner Read more:Comment
Campaign 08: Pardons for Clinton Library Money? 2008-03-06 21:45:00 Last night's, Newshour with Jim Lehrer featured a panel of "experts" including Leon Panetta, Geraldine Ferraro, Jesse Jackson and Senator Bill Bradley who is a supporter of Barack Obama. Bradley argued that it was very important for the Clinton
's to release tax records because "favors" might be expected as a result of high dollar donations. Among the possible favors Bradley listed: presidential pardons. Said Bradley:I think Barack Obama has a much stronger chance of beating John McCain in the general election. I think Hillary is flawed in many ways, and particularly if you look at her husband's unwillingness to release the names of the people who contributed to his presidential library. And the reason that is important -- you know, are there favors attached to $500,000 or $1 million contri Read more:Campaign
, Library
, Money
Illinois: Investigation (Update) 2008-03-06 08:23:00 The Chicago Tribune reports that Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration has "presented a confusing picture" of what his office knew about a woman who received a criminal pardon while her school received a $1 million state grant. William Quinlan, general counsel to the governor, told reporters the pardon "had absolutely nothing to do" with the school's request for grant money and that, at the time, the governor was aware of no link between Chandra N. Gill's and the school. Spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said Blagojevich was swayed by Gill's "good works" and the fact that she "was improving her life and doing good things with her life."But the Tribune has already uncovered the fact that the connection with the school was at the heart of Gill's request for the pardon. The August 2006 petition stat Read more:Illinois
, Update
Illinois: A Grant. A Pardon. An Investigation. 2008-03-05 23:36:00 The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) granted a pardon to an officer of a church school in the midst of approving a $1 million state grant that would help programs affiliated with the church. On top of that, the money eventually went to a private school which bought a Loop office condo. Rep. Kack Franks (D-Woostock) a member of the state legislature has scheduled hearings to investigate the grant and the Governor's office says it is now looking into whether or not the school associated with Pilgrim Baptist Church is "viable." Rep. Franks says the Governor basically gave "a non-existent school a million dollars to buy a floor on a condo building with no students, no faculty, no clear date of opening, and that apparently didn't have a tax-exempt status until they wer Read more:Grant
, Illinois
, Pardon
Kentucky: Pardon Reform. Restoration of Rights 2008-03-05 09:30:00 About 129,000 Kentuckians cannot vote because of felony convictions. But, those who complete their sentences will be able to have their voting rights restored more easily under changes to the pardon process announced by Gov. Steve Beshear (D). Beshear said he will drop requirements for an essay and three character references - requirements created by the previous Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R). There will also be a revocation of a $2 fee because Beshear says, "This disenfranchisement makes no sense." Corrections officials will help interested felons with pardon applications before their release from prison or jail, and Beshear's office will process more than 1,500 applications left behind by Fletcher, plus 176 new applications filed since January 1. Story here. Read more:Kentucky
, Pardon
, Reform
, Rights
The President: Siegelman and Scrushy? 2008-03-05 01:01:00 The Daily 49er has an interesting article regarding two individuals on our Pardon Watch List. Don Siegelman, the former Democratic governor of Alabama, was found guilty in 2006 on seven counts of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud. Richard M. Scrushy, a former CEO of the Birmingham, Ala.-based HealthSouth Corporation, paid off $500,000 in debts that Siegelman had accrued from his 1999 initiative to implement a state lottery and, in exchange, received a seat on a state hospital licensing board. Siegelman has almost seven years left to serve of his 88-month sentence. Scrushy is serving 82 months.But Siegelman's daughter, a 23-year-old Cal State Long Beach communications graduate, is making an extraordinary effort on her father's behalf. Last week, she passed out more than 2,000 copies of a f Read more:President
Florida: Request (Update) 2008-03-04 14:56:00 Charlie Free, a.k.a. Jack Hazen, was arrested in Las Vegas, January 30 after remaining a fugitive for more than 30 years. Hazen was charged with armed robbery in 1976 and sentenced to seven years in prison. But he escaped after serving 1 1/2 years when a fellow inmate put a contract out on his life. Hazen fled to Arizona, changed his name to Free, met his future wife and moved to Nevada. Now he is 62-years-old and suffering from several expensive health issues, including Alzheimer's, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and cancer, which result in prescription expenses of $36,000 per year.Hazen/Free is currently in Clark County Detention Center in Nevada and waits to see if Florida
's governor, Charlie Crist, will sign a warrant for his arrest and kick what would certainly be a lengthy extradition Read more:Update
Montana: Request 2008-03-04 11:59:00 Ronald Allen Smith is sitting on Montana
's death row because he pleaded guilty to double homicide in 1983 and asked to be sentenced to death. Just three weeks before his plea, Smith turned down an offer of life imprisonment in return for a guilty plea. After he began serving his sentence, however, Smith changed his mind and his death sentence was overturned three times before is was reimposed. In 2005, Smith's lawyer and the government of Canada began actively negotiating to win clemency from Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D). However, Canada (which originally approached Smith for assistance) halted the negotiation effort on Oct. 31, 2007, and the 50-year old Smith is now asking the Federal Court of Canada to force the federal government to continue help him in the search for a commuta
Kentucky: To Limit, or Not Limit, the Pardon Power 2008-03-04 08:49:00 Gov. Steve Beshear has made no effort to push for a significant plank in his gubernatorial campaign platform: an amendment limiting a governor's pardoning powers. Rep. Darryl Owens (D-Louisville), who sponsored House Bill 5 and chairs the committee that would hear the proposal, says, "I haven't heard from him, but that's not unusual." In January, Brashear promised to "lead" the fight. A spokeswoman said Monday that the Governor remains committed to the bill and will discuss it later.During the fall campaign, Beshear repeatedly criticized former Gov. Ernie Fletcher for pardoning his entire administration during an investigation of state hiring practices and pledged he would make sure no other governor uses pardons to stop ongoing criminal investigations. Fletcher and 14 others were eventual Read more:Kentucky
, Limit
, Pardon
The President: Pardon for Conrad Black? 2008-03-04 08:35:00 The Globe and Mail reports that one of the individuals on our Pardon
Watch List is indeed hoping for a presidential pardon. 63-year old media baron Lord ConradBlack
is hoping George W. Bush will come through. As his lawyers put it, "You never know." Black has reported to a low-security jail in Florida to begin serving a six-and-a-half-year sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice.Jacob Frenkel, a former U.S. prosecutor says "It's very plausible that as soon as the election ends, President
Bush could commute or issue a pardon." Frenkel also believes that President Bush may have an "emotional incentive" in Lord Black's case because of the involvement of Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, who also the special prosecutor in the high-profile case
New York: Report 2008-03-02 17:13:00 In remembering the life and work of John D.B. Lewis, the New York
Times sheds light on the state of clemency in New York. The article makes this observation:Mr. Lewis devoted his life to helping prisoners and other clients who could not pay him. His toughest fight lasted 12 years and took him from the New York State parole board to regulatory panels to state court to federal court, including the Supreme Court of the United States. It ended on Dec. 21, 2007, when Governor Spitzer pardoned Mr. Lewis’s client Frederick Lake, who had been paroled a decade earlier after serving six years in state prison for armed robbery. Except for Gov. George E. Pataki's pardon of the comedian Lenny Bruce in 2003, it was the first pardon by a New York governor since 1979.See story here.
Comment: Library Scandal and the Pardon Power 2008-03-01 19:53:00 Today's Washington Post notes that the President, when asked whether he would disclose the identities of donors to his library, said, "We'll look at the disclosure requirements and make a decision." He also noted that "some people . . . like to give and don't particularly want their names disclosed, whether it be for this foundation or any other foundation. And so we'll take that into consideration." The Post considers this the "wrong" answer. Why? Because:It was an outrage when Mr. Bush's predecessor, President Bill Clinton, collected millions of dollars in secret money for his library while in office. Just how outrageous became clear as Mr. Clinton left the presidency, when he granted a pardon to fugitive financier Marc Rich; Mr. Rich's ex-wife had given $450,000 to the Clinton library.Y Read more:Comment
, Library
, Pardon
, Scandal
Remembering Buckley: The Death Penalty and the Pardon Power 2008-03-01 15:41:00 Many of William F. Buckley
's Firing Line debates and regular television programs were dedicated to the topic of the death penalty. And there was certainly little doubt as to where he stood on the issue. In an August 1989 editorial Buckley wrote, "My own opinion is that too few, not too many, people are being executed in America."But, if you look through the body of Buckley's work, especially his editorials, you cannot help but see that Buckley's view of the death penalty included an emphasis on the need for the intelligent use of the pardon power. For example, in the above mentioned editorial he also wrote:But it makes very good sense to be as certain as circumstance allows that the right people go to the death chamber. Hang one man, prove the next day or year that he was in fact innocent, Read more:Pardon
, Penalty
, Remembering
New Mexico: Request (Update) 2008-02-29 17:32:00 The judge who sentenced a decorated Marine and Iraq veteran to two years in prison and four years of probation says he will not reconsider the sentence, despite a recent request by Governor Bill Richardson (D) that he do so. Elton John Richard pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in January after initially being charged with murder. He fatally shot a would-be burglar after chasing him several blocks. District Judge Albert "Pat" Murdoch says that he expects Richard’s attorney to apply for executive clemency sometime next week. A spokesman for Richardson says the Governor is "prepared to consider executive clemency for Elton John Richard. However, he has not received [a] formal request from the family or Richard’s attorney.” Sen. Pete Domenici (R) has also called for a full pardon Read more:Mexico
, New Mexico
, Update
Remembering Buckley: Frustration With the Pardon Process 2008-02-29 14:40:00 In December of 1976, William F. Buckley
, Jr. angrily expressed his concerns over the pardon process noting, "Chile may be showing greater concern for its political prisoners than the United States." The anxiety stemmed from the fact that Buckley wanted to see Howard Hunt's two and a half to eight-year prison sentence commuted. Harvard Professor James Q. Wilson had noted that anyone else with Hunt's record would have probably been given a 30-day suspended sentence. But Judge John Sirica was handing out "extraordinary prison terms" in order to "put special pressure on his prisoners to cooperate with the prosecution." Buckley wrote:In the office of the Attorney General of the United States is someone called the Pardon
Attorney. His job is to prepare recommendations for the President of the Un Read more:Frustration
, Process
, Remembering
New Mexico: Request (Update) 2008-02-29 00:29:00 Gov. Bill Richardson is urging a state district judge to re-evaluate the sentence of a decorated Marine and Iraq war veteran, Elton John Richard, who shot and killed a would-be burglar. Richardson's office has described Richard's two-year sentence as harsh. In addition, Judge Pat Murdoch ordered Richard to pay restitution of $500 a month for four years. If the sentence is not reconsidered, Governor Richardson says that he is willing to consider a request for executive clemency. Other details here. Read more:Mexico
, New Mexico
, Update
Remembering Buckley: The Nixon Pardon 2008-02-28 11:00:00 After having browsed through the William F. Buckley
Archive at Hillsdale College, I note that the man actually wrote many an editorial on the pardon power, both state and federal. I thought I would summarize highlights in what I found in two or three posts, beginning with what most under-informed persons consider the Mother of All Pardon
s: Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon
. In his editorial of September 12, 1973, Buckley addressed what he felt were the major objections to the pardon. Some of his commentary remains impressively relevant to clemency issues today.Buckley rejected the notion that Nixon has not "shown a proper contrition" and did not "apologize" for his actions and dismissed the complaint that the pardon precluded the establishment of his guilt. As far as Buckley was concer Read more:Remembering
New Hampshire: Request (Maybe) 2008-02-28 08:42:00 Kyle Short (37) is demanding restitution and a formal apology from police after serving two months in jail only to see the dismissal of a felony sexual assault charge brought against him. Short says, "There was no evidence to support the child's allegations. I was humiliated in court and my reputation was in jeopardy ... The detective had nothing on me when I was arrested. He dropped all the charges because there was no evidence." Short admits that he was convicted of aggravated felonious sexual assault against a person younger than 13 in 1996, but says he is working to obtain a pardon from the governor for that conviction. The Atttorney General's Office (which handles all pardon requests) says, however, that Short had not requested a pardon. The office receives between 15 and 25 pardon re Read more:Hampshire
, Maybe
, New Hampshire
Illinois: Commutation Revisited 2008-02-28 08:34:00 Days before his term ended in 2003, Illinois
Governor George Ryan (R) commuted the death sentences of 167 inmates to life in prison. Since then, 13 men have been sentenced to death in Illinois -- Eric Hanson became No. 14 Wednesday. It took the DuPage County jury only 90 minutes to decide. In 2005, Hanson shot his parents while they slept in their Naperville home. He then moved their bodies to his sister's Aurora home after bludgeoning Kate Hanson-Tsao and her husband, Jimmy Tsao, earlier that evening. Story here. Read more:Revisited
Campaign 08: Spitzer, "Go Hillary! Go!" 2008-03-12 15:44:00 I cannot say whether or not Tom Bemis at MarketWatch is a Democrat or a Republican. Nor do I have any idea which candidate he supports. But, in an editorial entitled, "Five reasons why [Eliot] Spitzer
's not done," he writes:... Spitzer is a superdelegate to the Democratic Convention, committed to Hillary
Clinton. If he sticks around, and backs her, and she makes it to the White House, he's well on his way to executive clemency for any criminal charges he may get hit with. While one could see this as a comment on Bemis, or MarketWatch, or on Hillary Clinton, it seems more enlightening and/or productive to pause and just ponder what it says about public perceptions regarding the state of federal executive clemency in the United States. See full editorial here. Read more:Campaign
Illinois: Governor Ignores Alton Logan 2008-03-12 14:17:00 In a recent post, here, PardonPower related the story of a man, Alton Logan
, who has been in prison half of his life while an actual murderer went free. Two attorneys were aware of the wrongful conviction but felt compelled to keep the information secret because of the attorney-client privilege. The client in question is now dead. In this 60 Minutes segment, Logan and the two attorneys speak out. An attempt is being made to get a new trial, but Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich (D) could right the wrong instantly, with the stroke of his pen. Such an indisputably appropriate use of the clemency power might ease the sting that the Governor
is currently experiencing as a result of his pardon of Chandra Gill. Meanwhile, Logan says the State of Illinois
is "quick to convict, but they are slow to correct
The President: 60 Minutes Report 2008-03-12 01:43:00 PardonPower placed former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (D) on the President
ial Pardon "Watch List" long ago and has updated the effort by his college-aged daughter to obtain a presidential pardon on his behalf (see The President: Siegelman and Scrushy?). Now, PardonPower readers can view a report on Siegelman's case broadcast last month on the ever-intriguing television program 60 Minutes. The general theme of the segment is "politics, politics, politics, Karl Rove, and politics." See complete video here (after a brief annoying commercial). There is a complete transcript of the segment as well.
Koch: Pardon My (Productive) Torture 2008-03-11 13:24:00 In a Real Clear Politics editorial here, Ed Koch has linked the pardon power to the hot topic of prisoner interrogation and the use of torture. Koch writes, among other things:I believe that torture may be warranted in the "ticking bomb" situation, where the interrogators reasonably believe based on credible information in their possession that the suspect knows where the "ticking bomb" is located and no other source is available to them. I do not believe there should be any statute or regulation authorizing torture, but we must depend on interrogators of conscience, mindful of the consequences of their actions. If any such interrogator is wrong in his judgment, tortures the suspect and elicits no bomb information, he should be indicted and serve a prison sentence upon conviction. If he el Read more:Pardon
, Torture
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