Truthout: Bush's Use of Pardons Isn't Very Compassionate

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Bush's Use of Pardons Isn't Very Compassionate
By Gene C. Gerard
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor

Tuesday 02 January 2007

The White House recently announced that President Bush had issued pardons to 16 individuals. Their offenses included bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the government, possession of marijuana and cocaine, and mail fraud. During his first term, Mr. Bush issued a mere 31 pardons and commutations. To date, he has issued 113 pardons and three commutations. That's fewer than any two-term president in the modern era. In fact, you have to go back to George Washington to find a president who served two terms and made fewer acts of clemency.

The president's power to grant pardons was clearly enshrined in the United States Constitution, Article II, Section 2: "The President shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment." Although the framers of the Constitution debated clemency, it was not viewed as a controversial idea. There was some debate over making presidential pardons subject to the consent of the Senate, though this was quickly rejected.

As the founding fathers were hammering out the details of the Constitution in Philadelphia, they seem to have essentially agreed that the privilege to exercise mercy, on which the power to issue pardons was founded, could be most easily granted by a single person, rather than a legislative body, or even judges. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist Number 74, wrote "... one man appears to be a more eligible dispenser of the mercy of the government than a body of men."

Over the years, presidents have issued pardons to and commuted the sentences of a motley band of crooks, criminals, and scoundrels. President George Washington gave amnesty to the instigators of the Whiskey Rebellion, while Andrew Johnson did the same for Confederate rebels. Warren G. Harding pardoned fiery Socialist labor leader and convicted felon Eugene V. Debs. Richard Nixon issued a commutation to organized crime figure Jimmy Hoffa, only to be pardoned himself by Gerald Ford following the Watergate fiasco.

Jimmy Carter gave amnesty to the Vietnam War draft resisters, and commuted the sentence of bank robber Patty Hearst. Ronald Reagan issued a pardon to George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees for illegal campaign contributions he made in the 1960s. George Bush Sr. pardoned Iran Contra scandal figure Caspar Weinberger. Bill Clinton infamously pardoned fugitive financier Mark Rich, whose wife had been a major contributor to the Democratic National Committee. ..... (more)

The rest of the editorial is at: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010207K.shtml