Interesting item but considering Hilliary took $600,000 and Clintons brothers and Hilliary's family took money which amounted to bribes for presidential pardons, etc., where does line between bribery and pardon and racketeering begin and end? Justice is not for sale - but I wonder, about equal protection of the laws where a poor guy in prison must sit a lifetime while a rich man goes free and I do not think this was the intent of the use of Presidential pardons. Half that Congress is on the take and we might as well toss in the rest of the mutual admiration society, the Senate. Clinton was bought and paid for long, long ago - when he tried to clone himself after JFK - can you imagine JFK permitting a piece of garbage such as James Carville to call a Paul CORBIN Jones, Trailer Trash? More and more I understand why this country has had an unusual amount of Vigilante justice....... Saba This piece was researched in what my old boss would say was "half assed" work. 06/18/2001 - Updated 05:04 PM ET How do presidential pardons work? By Judy Keen, USA TODAY Controversy over pardons by former president Bill Clinton at the end of his term has prompted questions about the pardon process. The history and the rules: Q: Where did presidents get their power to grant pardons? A: Section II, Article 2 of the Constitution says the president "shall have the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment." Q: Are there any limits on the president's power? A: Presidents can pardon anyone for any crime that would have been heard in federal court. In fact, granting pardons is the president's only absolute power. Q: What were the framers of the Constitution thinking? A: They brought the concept with them from England, which adapted the idea from Roman tradition. The earliest royal pardons were granted in the 7th century. Kings and queens often sold pardons outright. The exception for "cases of impeachment" originated in 17th century England, when the Earl of Danby, Thomas Osborne, was impeached by parliament but pardoned by King Charles II, triggering a constitutional crisis. At the constitutional convention of 1787, Alexander Hamilton argued that presidents would need such a power. "In seasons of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments when a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquility of the commonwealth," Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers. If presidents had to go through Congress, he wrote, the "golden opportunity" might pass. The idea was controversial. George Mason of Virginia refused to sign the Constitution partly because it gave unchecked pardon power to the president. Mason feared a president might conspire with people to commit crimes, then prevent "a discovery of his own guilt" by pardoning the criminals. Q: Did the framers consider limits? A: They considered allowing the Senate to approve pardons and debated excluding treason from the crimes for which pardons could be issued. They also weighed whether presidents should be allowed to pardon people only after they are convicted. They decided not to add that restriction, because they thought a quick pardon of a captured spy would induce the spy to divulge military secrets. They decided not to limit the president's power in any way. Q: What's the difference between a pardon, clemency and a commutation of sentence? A: Clemency is the broad term that applies to a pardon or a commutation of sentence, both of which can be issued by a president. A pardon "serves as an official statement of forgiveness for the commission of a federal crime and restores basic civil rights (such as the right to vote). It does not connote innocence," Roger Adams, the Justice Department's pardon attorney, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Feb. 14. A commutation is a reduction in the length of a sentence for someone who has already been convicted. It is not an act of forgiveness and does not erase the conviction. Q: What is the Justice Department's role in the process? A: In 1891, Congress created an Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department to review pleas for clemency. The pardon attorney researches requests and recommends to the president whether a pardon or commutation of sentence should be granted. Q: Why didn't that happen in the Rich case? A: Those regulations apply only if requests are submitted to Justice Department. Most requests do go to the Justice Department for that process, which can take months. Requests submitted directly to the president, such as Rich's, need not be reviewed by the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Generally, only people who know the president can bring their request straight to him. Q: Was anything else unusual about the Rich case? A: A person can't file a request for a commutation of sentence or a pardon with the Justice Department until five years after their sentence begins or five years after a conviction. Nor can anyone who has not yet been convicted submit a pardon request to the Justice Department. "However," Adams told the Judiciary Committee, "these rules do not bind the president." Q: Does it matter if Rich was not a U.S. citizen when Clinton pardoned him? A: No. The president can pardon anyone. Q: Did Clinton grant an unusual number of pardons? A: No. Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected to three terms, issued the most: 3,687. Herbert Hoover had the most for a one-term president: 1,385. Clinton ranks 20th of the nation's 43 presidents, with 456, including 140cq?? on his final day in office. William Harrison and James Garfield pardoned no one. George Washington issued the first pardon in 1792, forgiving the leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion. They were a group of Pennsylvanians who refused to pay taxes on liquor. Q: Were there other controversial pardons? A: "Every generation has its bizarre, unusual and controversial pardons," says P.S. Ruckman, a political science professor at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill. Three years after the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson pardoned Confederate soldiers. Some Northerners thought he was playing politics in hopes that Southerners would vote for his re-election. Abuse of pardon power was cited in the articles of impeachment against Johnson, who was acquitted in the Senate. Richard Nixon pardoned former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa in 1971, then received the Teamsters' endorsement a year later. Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam draft dodgers in 1977. In 1981, Ronald Reagan pardoned two FBI officials who authorized agents to break into Vietnam protesters' offices. In 1992, after he lost his re-election bid, George Bush pardoned several Reagan administration officials who had been charged in the Iran-contra scandal, including former Defense secretary Caspar. Weinberger. In 1974, Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. Q: Can pardons include conditions? A: Yes. Nixon's pardon of Hoffa included a condition that the labor leader couldn't return to union activities until the date his prison sentence would have expired. Hoffa went to court to try to remove the restriction and lost. Q: Has Congress ever tried to limit the president's pardon power? A: After Nixon was pardoned, Sen. Walter Mondale, D-Minn., proposed a constitutional amendment that would have given Congress the power to overturn pardons with two-thirds votes of both the House and Senate. The proposal went nowhere. Q: Has the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in? A: Several times. In 1833, Chief Justice Marshall said the court had no authority to overrule presidents and described a pardon as "an act of grace delivered to the individual for whose benefit it is intended." In an 1866 case, the Court said, "Congress can neither limit the effect of his pardon, nor exclude from its exercise any class of offenders." © Copyright 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. SPOTLIGHT
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2001-02-22-qapardons.htm
