What kind of people has Bush pardoned before?

[Hubert Flottz]

Unpardonable

The Bush record of 'compassion' began long before his sojourn in D.C.


snip...

Of 154 capital cases presented to Gov. Bush for possible commutation of sentence, W. sent 151 men and two women to their deaths. In the 154th case, that of serial murderer Henry Lee Lucas, the governor relented only because two attorneys general confirmed that he was on a job in Jacksonville, Fla., when he was supposed to be in Williamson Co. committing the crime for which he was sentenced to die.

It's widely believed but not quite true that W. refused all mercy – every opportunity to grant a commutation – during his six years as governor. In fact, in 20 noncapital cases he granted pardons. (A commutation is the executive limitation of a sentence, usually to prison time already served or, in a capital case, to life imprisonment; a pardon is an official release from a penalty, can be full or conditional, and can occur during or after a sentence has been served.) Most involved relatively minor nonviolent offenses and were early in W.'s tenure in office, before his views hardened – or his national political prospects jelled. (For almost two years after Henry Lee Lucas' commutation, W. didn't sign another.) Three pardons were issued not long before the governor became president. They were not grants of clemency – they involved sexual assaults in which new evidence of actual innocence had been found.

But apart from the Lucas case, there was only one additional commutation – a reduction to time served. The facts of that case might show, when it comes to a question of right and wrong, what it takes to bend W.'s heart.

In this instance, though, the actual wrong was on Gov. Bush's part. He left a woman to languish in prison, years after her sentence was complete. More...

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A215418

Scooter would be in the same lucky little group as Henry Lee Lucas, if Bush pardons him.