In the wake of President Bush’s prison sentence commutation for “Scooter” Libby, we are wise to revisit President Clinton’s explanation, published in the NY Times, of the 100+ presidential pardons that he granted on the eve of his leaving office.
Clinton writes, “On Jan. 20, 2001, I granted 140 pardons and issued 36 commutations. During my presidency, I issued a total of approximately 450 pardons and commutations, compared to 406 issued by President Reagan during his two terms. During his four years, President Carter issued 566 pardons and commutations, while in the same length of time President Bush granted 77. President Ford issued 409 during the slightly more than two years he was president.”
Is President Bush likely to put forth many pardons and commutations? This question is addressed here at Jurist Legal Intelligence FAQ reply. In it, the author(s) opines:
“No. For one thing, his father issued very few (77) when he was in office. For another, during his prior term as Governor of Texas, George W. issued fewer pardons than any Texas Governor since the 1940s (16 up to January 2000, as opposed to 70 for his immediate predecessor Ann Richards, 822 for 2-term governor Bill Clements, and 1048 for John Connally, Texas governor from 1963-69).”
It will be interesting to see what level of historical perspective the media and punditry place on their assessment of Bush’s jail sentence commutation for Libby. We can disregard presidential candidates’ views on this matter for reasons obvious.
