sweetpea
01-13-2004, 09:58 PM
Just one more reason why I hate this man!!
-------
email from Drug War Chronicle, http://stopthedrugwar.org
-------
American presidents have traditionally used the Christmas holiday season to hand out the gift of freedom to a few unfortunates locked up behind bars. The presidential power to grant pardons is unfettered, despite cries of special favors directed at President Clinton for his pardons of a handful of well-connected non-drug offenders. Clinton also used his pardon power to free some drug offenders, and previous presidents have used the power to free other convicted criminals.
According to a Christmas Eve report in the Wall Street Journal, Bush had issued only 11 pardons as of September 30, leaving him ahead of only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield, both of whom died shortly after taking office. At the same points in their presidencies, other recent presidents were far ahead of Bush's pace: Clinton had issued 56 pardons; Bush, Sr., 39; Reagan, 181; Carter, 319; Ford, 404; Nixon; 522; Johnson, 925; Kennedy, 391; and way back at the beginning of the modern drug war era, Eisenhower, 132.
Bush's pardons have been for "very safe cases," the Journal reported, including a man who got probation in 1962 for making moonshine, a minister sentenced to two years in 1957 for not reporting for his military induction, and a 1971 case where a postal worker served one year for stealing $10.90 from the mail. Bush was also stingy with pardons as governor: He pardoned fewer people than any Texas governor since the 1940s. But one of those he did pardon, an unpaid constable convicted on a marijuana charge, went on to get caught stealing cocaine in a drug raid.
Bush apparently cannot get over the errant constable. He pardons two turkeys every Thanksgiving (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/313/turkeys.shtml), but is content to let hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders continue to rot in prison. The complete list of the Bush drug prisoner pardons follows:
...
The end. That's right: Nobody. Merry Christmas, Mr. President.
-------
email from Drug War Chronicle, http://stopthedrugwar.org
-------
American presidents have traditionally used the Christmas holiday season to hand out the gift of freedom to a few unfortunates locked up behind bars. The presidential power to grant pardons is unfettered, despite cries of special favors directed at President Clinton for his pardons of a handful of well-connected non-drug offenders. Clinton also used his pardon power to free some drug offenders, and previous presidents have used the power to free other convicted criminals.
According to a Christmas Eve report in the Wall Street Journal, Bush had issued only 11 pardons as of September 30, leaving him ahead of only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield, both of whom died shortly after taking office. At the same points in their presidencies, other recent presidents were far ahead of Bush's pace: Clinton had issued 56 pardons; Bush, Sr., 39; Reagan, 181; Carter, 319; Ford, 404; Nixon; 522; Johnson, 925; Kennedy, 391; and way back at the beginning of the modern drug war era, Eisenhower, 132.
Bush's pardons have been for "very safe cases," the Journal reported, including a man who got probation in 1962 for making moonshine, a minister sentenced to two years in 1957 for not reporting for his military induction, and a 1971 case where a postal worker served one year for stealing $10.90 from the mail. Bush was also stingy with pardons as governor: He pardoned fewer people than any Texas governor since the 1940s. But one of those he did pardon, an unpaid constable convicted on a marijuana charge, went on to get caught stealing cocaine in a drug raid.
Bush apparently cannot get over the errant constable. He pardons two turkeys every Thanksgiving (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/313/turkeys.shtml), but is content to let hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders continue to rot in prison. The complete list of the Bush drug prisoner pardons follows:
...
The end. That's right: Nobody. Merry Christmas, Mr. President.