Un-Clement Weather In The Obama Administration
On clemency, compared to Obama, Ronald Reagan is practically a flower child.
Obama has granted clemency more rarely than any modern president, writes Dafna Linzer at ProPublica:
A former brothel manager who helped the FBI bust a national prostitution ring. A retired sheriff who inadvertently helped a money launderer buy land. A young woman who mailed ecstasy tablets for a drug-dealing boyfriend, then worked with investigators to bring him down.All of them and hundreds more were denied pardons by President Obama, who has granted clemency at a lower rate than any modern president, a ProPublica review of pardons data shows.
The Constitution gives the president unique power to forgive individuals for federal offenses. While pardons do not wipe away convictions, they can restore a person's full rights to vote, possess firearms and obtain business licenses, as well as remove barriers to certain career opportunities and adoptions. For many applicants, a pardon is simply an opportunity for a fresh start.
But Obama has parceled out forgiveness far more rarely than his recent predecessors, pardoning just 22 individuals while denying 1,019.
He has given pardons to roughly 1 of every 50 individuals whose applications were processed by the Justice Department. At this point in his presidency, Ronald Reagan had pardoned 1 of every 3 such applicants. George H.W. Bush had pardoned 1 in 16. Bill Clinton had pardoned 1 in 8. George W. Bush had pardoned 1 in 33.
Obama also has been stingy with commutations, applications for early release by those still serving federal prison sentences.
Under Reagan and Clinton, applicants for commutations had a 1 in 100 chance of success. Under George W. Bush, that fell to a little less than 1 in 1,000. Under Obama, an applicant's chance is slightly less than 1 in 5,000.
He has commuted the sentence of one individual, a woman with terminal leukemia whose case was championed by Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin.
"This idea of 'tough on crime' took root around the time of Ronald Reagan and it is striking that President Obama is showing so much less mercy than Reagan," said Jeffrey Crouch, a political science professor at American University and the author of "The Presidential Pardon Power."
via @radleybalko
Why is it assumed that the class of criminal presented for clemency is the same between these administrations - and why would you assume that a particular case deserves clemency?
This article judges the merits of a President on his willingness to set convicted criminals free?
Gee, then the guy who lets them all go would be the best person in the world!
Radwaste at November 3, 2012 4:26 AM
"A former brothel manager who helped the FBI bust a national prostitution ring."
I this is entirely tangential to the topic, and has no bearing on the point of the article at all, but: Denying a pardon seems to me a good thing in this case, because prostitution is a victimless crime and should be legal, so jailing prostitutes is a vile, barbaric immoral thing to do ... anyone who helps bring law enforcement again prostitutes, should be jailed (unless he was forced to do it against his will). (Though of course, I doubt Obama is giving regard as to what the 'right thing to do' is.)
Lobster at November 3, 2012 4:33 AM
A more likely explaination is that playing golf was a higher priority than reviewing those pesky applications.
A man who has trouble making the most simple decision when there is any possibility of political fallout?
In short,this slacker blew off all the grind work of being president, just like it was his high school homework.
You really expect a guy with not enough patience to attend a daily intelligence briefing, to go theough stacks of clemency applications?
Isab at November 3, 2012 6:55 AM
He'll gladly grant you your clemency Tuesday for a photo op he may have today....
Feebie at November 3, 2012 8:36 AM
Why is it assumed that the class of criminal presented for clemency is the same between these administrations - and why would you assume that a particular case deserves clemency?
Sure, there could be some discrepancy, but the vast difference in the numbers is not reading discrepancy, but "HEY, YOU WHO THOUGHT YOU WERE VOTING FOR A KINDER, GENTLER, MORE CIVIL LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENT...YOU BEEN HAD!"
Amy Alkon at November 3, 2012 9:51 AM
Sad thing is Amy, they dont care, or want to know.
Everytime I run across a conversation about how much better Obama is over Bush I start out agreeing and list every horrible thing Bush did, once they are all nodding in agreement I shift to the fact that Obama is even worse for keeping the programs and expanding them.
They already know it on some level, but its like a woman going back to an abusive husband 'this time will be different, he promised'
lujlp at November 3, 2012 12:17 PM
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