*'s Pardons: 3,000 requests and counting

[babylonsister]

President Bush's pardons: Sparing
Petitions for clemency pile up at Justice Department, but Bush offers little.
Posted August 9, 2008 7:00 AM
The Swamp

by Mark Silva


President George W. Bush, who hasn't pardoned many criminals in his time, will have a chance to spare legions before leaving office in January.

Requests for presidential pardons and commutations of prison sentences are piling up at the Justice Department, with more than 3,000 pending. And, if history serves as any guide, the height of pardon season arrives in the final December of any president's term.

Bush has proven to be exceptionally sparing with his pardon power. In modern times, only his father offered less clemency for the convicted. President George H.W. Bush, with only one term in which to act, signed just 74 pardons and three commutations--a fraction of what many recent presidents have allowed.

Near the end of his second term, the younger Bush has signed just 157 pardons and six commutations. He has drawn widespread attention for only one: the commutation of Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison time after the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney was convicted of obstruction of justice.

But Bush will have plenty of opportunities before leaving office in January. Nearly 1,000 petitions for pardons and more than 2,000 bids for commutations of sentences are pending.

Marion Jones, the world-champion sprinter serving 6 months in jail for lying about her use of performance-enhancing drugs, is among those seeking clemency.

So is Michael Milken, the junk-bond financier who went to prison for insider trading and is free now but seeking a pardon. President Bill Clinton turned him down.

more...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/08/president_bushs_pardons_sparin.html

[LiberalFighter]

1. Who is all on the list?

[edhopper]

3. Let's see

Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Miers, Gonzales.............

[SalmonChantedEvening]

2. And that's just from 2001 n/t

[gratuitous]

4. Daddy just pardoned the important ones

Cap Weinberger, Elliott Abrams, a former assistant secretary of state for Inter-American affairs; former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane; and Duane Clarridge, Alan Fiers, and Clair George, all former employees of the Central Intelligence Agency; in the dead of night on Christmas Eve 1992 after he'd lost his bid for re-election, and just before Weinberger and the others were set to go to trial for their role in Iran-contra. The evidence that came out surely would have put the lie to Bush's assertion that he was "out of the loop" for that crime.

And nobody said a word.

[thecrow]

5. Why do we have this "law" at all?