New at Reason

July 11, 2007

Jacob Sullum pushes a few appeals for commutation under the oval office door.

Comments

js290|7.11.07 @ 8:03AM|#

"Genarlow Wilson, whose 10-year prison sentence for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old when he was 17 was voided by a judge earlier this month, is not eligible to be released on bail while the state appeals his sentence, a judge ruled today."

|7.11.07 @ 8:26AM|#

What's with the sharp dropoff after Carter?

Let me guess, the early 1980s were when drug laws became more stringent and the prison population became more of a pariah.

|7.11.07 @ 8:42AM|#

I wish that the article had mentioned Hurwitz or Paey. Both of them are sympathetic beyond dispute; unfortunately, I understand that their stories are a little bit harder to tell.

|7.11.07 @ 8:58AM|#

GW has engaged in the most shameless abuse of office of any politician I've ever seen.

What stuns me is how, even now, his supporters come to his defense.

|7.11.07 @ 9:11AM|#

Warren,

Pretty much the only argument they have is that Clinton did it too. Which makes me wonder if Bush can get a consequence-free blowjob in in the next couple of years also.

VM|7.11.07 @ 9:42AM|#

Warren -

cuz of certain, socially conservative stances that his supporters want to defend, maybe.

/pours drink

|7.11.07 @ 10:36AM|#

Bush is averaging 18 acts of clemency a year, compared to 57 for Clinton, 19 for George H.W. Bush, 51 for Reagan, 142 for Carter, 164 for Ford, 168 for Nixon, 237 for Johnson, 192 for Kennedy, 145 for Eisenhower, 264 for Truman, and 301 for FDR.

While I agree with your larger point, it's awfully dishonest to compare Bush's clemency stats to other presidents; most presidents have issued a flurry of pardons during their last days in office, and Bush may yet do so.

Clinton pardoned what, 141 people on his last day in office? That's adding 17.5 pardons per year, and I don't know how many commutations or reprieves he issued on that last day, which would also add to his total.

|7.11.07 @ 9:13PM|#

That is why Jury Nullifacation exists, so that the people can right the unfair laws. But of course the judge never mentions that does he...
"The power of the jury to judge the justice of the law and to hold laws invalid by a finding of "not guilty" for any law a juror felt was unjust or oppressive, dates back to the Magna Carta, in 1215." http://www.isil.org/resources/lit/history-jury-null.html

|7.13.07 @ 6:48PM|#

George Bush think the framers intended whatever it is Dick Cheney tells him they intended.