A few weeks ago, President George W. Bush granted another group of pardons. I started to wonder about pardons and what they mean for the person receiving a pardon. It turns out that presidents can do two things for citizens who have had a run in with the law:
1.) “A pardon means an executive order vacating a conviction”(Wikipedia). – Thus, making it like it had never happened. If you were a felon, you can now vote, own guns, and check that you have never been convicted of a felony on job applications. Both Presidents Bush pardoned people who had already completed their entire sentences.
2.) “A commutation means a mitigation of the sentence someone currently serving a sentence for a crime pursuant to a conviction, without vacating the conviction itself”(Wikipedia). – Although a person receiving a commuted sentence would still be a felon and still have to disclose information about it, they would no longer have to be in jail. This will probably happen for Ted Stevens, and has already saved I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from spending 30 months in jail.
Former President Bill Clinton summarizes the numbers best in a New York Times article he wrote in February of 2001 to explain why the power of clemency is granted to the Executive Branch, as well as his reasons for granting some controversial pardons.
1.) “A pardon means an executive order vacating a conviction”(Wikipedia). – Thus, making it like it had never happened. If you were a felon, you can now vote, own guns, and check that you have never been convicted of a felony on job applications. Both Presidents Bush pardoned people who had already completed their entire sentences.
2.) “A commutation means a mitigation of the sentence someone currently serving a sentence for a crime pursuant to a conviction, without vacating the conviction itself”(Wikipedia). – Although a person receiving a commuted sentence would still be a felon and still have to disclose information about it, they would no longer have to be in jail. This will probably happen for Ted Stevens, and has already saved I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from spending 30 months in jail.
Former President Bill Clinton summarizes the numbers best in a New York Times article he wrote in February of 2001 to explain why the power of clemency is granted to the Executive Branch, as well as his reasons for granting some controversial pardons.
"On Jan. 20, 2001, I granted 140 pardons and issued 36 commutations. During my presidency, I issued a total of approximately 450 pardons and commutations, compared to 406 issued by President Reagan during his two terms. During his four years, President Carter issued 566 pardons and commutations, while in the same length of time President Bush granted 77. President Ford issued 409 during the slightly more than two years he was president." (Bill Clinton)
There will surely be last minute pardons before “W” leaves office in January 2009, but so far in his two terms 171 presidential pardons have been issued in his name. Let’s look at a direct comparison of the types of crimes pardoned by the Bush Presidents. I categorized each crime into one of eight categories.
1.) Any crime committed with a gun or related to a gun. (Ex: robbing a store at gun point or illegally selling firearms without a license)
2.) Drug crimes (This category got split in two when I realized the low percentage of pardons granted for marijuana possession/distribution when compared to crimes involving cocaine, hashish, LSD, and bootlegging or moonshining alcohol.)
3.) Fraud (Ex: lying on government forms, tax evasion, representing yourself as something you are not)
4.) Theft of money (Ex: bank embezzlement, misapplication of US Postal Service funds)
5.) Theft of property (Ex: possession of stolen mail, stealing a car, theft of government property)
6.) Environmental (Ex: importation into the country of wildlife taken in violation of conservation laws, illegal disposal of toxic waste)
7.) Military (Ex: AWOL from Coast Guard, insubordination, failure to report for duty)
8.) Other – The few crimes that could not fit into one of these categories (Ex: failure to appear in court, conspiracy to gamble regarding football)
At the top of the post, there is a graph showing the percentages of total pardons by both Presidents Bush, broken down by category. (Sorry, but it was a Herculean task to get the graph on the blog. Couldn't figure out how to get the graph in the middle of the story.)
What do the numbers on the graph mean? Basically, if you committed a crime dealing with guns, marijuana, or against the military, you pretty much have no shot at being pardoned. If, however, you’ve conspired to transport cocaine, lied on a government form or stolen money or property, you could be among many who have received pardons for similar actions. At the end of the day, no matter what crime you’ve committed, if the President is your friend (or brother, as when Roger Clinton, Jr. was pardoned after serving a year in federal prison for cocaine possession) you can pretty much get away with anything.
