The presidential pardon has got to be one of the strangest traditions in Washington. How exactly is justice served when an outgoing president hands out clean slates to a dozen or so convicted criminals, just because he’s a few weeks away from retirement? Why should a president have the power to bypass the courts and wipe people’s records at will? If they’re in jail, isn’t it because they deserve to be there? And if if they don’t, why wait until the end of your presidency to set the record straight?
In any case, President George W. Bush has just pardoned a motley assortment of felons including a counterfeiter, several fraudsters and drug dealers, and a guy who tried to blow up a coal mine. Also on the list was John Forte, the producer for the Fugees, who was busted eight years ago at a New Jersey airport with $1.4-million in liquid cocaine in his luggage. Forte wasn’t entirely pardoned, but will see his 14-year sentence commuted to seven, meaning he’ll be out by Christmas this year.
If you think that’s controversial, it’s got nothing on these high-profile presidential pardons:
- President Richard Nixon received a pardon for all his Watergate-related shenanigans from Gerald Ford, who succeeded him in the White House.
- Patty Hearst robbed a bank with an assault rifle as a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a group of guerilla fighters that made worldwide headlines in the mid 1970’s.
- George Steinbrenner, the gajillionnaire owner of the New York Yankees, was pardoned by Ronald Reagan after admitting to obstructing justice and trying to illegally contribute to Richard Nixon’s campaign.
Image via the Sydney Morning Herald.
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