<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="5" color="#000000" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="5" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica">Alexander Cockburn <<a href="mailto:alexandercockburn@asis.com">alexandercockburn@asis.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="5" color="#000000" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="5" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica">November 26, 2011 1:51:51 PM CST</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="5" color="#000000" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="5" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica"><<a href="mailto:counterpunch-general@counterpunch.org">counterpunch-general@counterpunch.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="5" color="#000000" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="5" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica"><b>[CP-General] Steve Wishnia on Obama and pardons</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="5" color="#000000" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Reply-To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="5" style="font: 18.0px Helvetica"><<a href="mailto:counterpunch-general@counterpunch.org">counterpunch-general@counterpunch.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> </div> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; "><p class="sweet-justice" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.467em; text-align: left; ">Obama has granted fewer requests for clemency than any President in the last century, even considering that most issue a batch of pardons just before they leave office. As of Nov. 21, he has given 22 pardons and commuted one sentence. Those represent about 0.3 percent of the petitions for clemency he has received.</p><p class="sweet-justice" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.467em; text-align: left; ">In contrast, George W. Bush gave 189 pardons and 11 commutations, approving 1.8 percent of the petitions for clemency he received. Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush granted clemency at an even higher rate, in 5 to 6 percent of cases. Clinton issued 396 pardons and 61 commutations, while Bush I gave 74 pardons and three commutations. What's more, Obama has pardoned 10 drug offenders; Bush II pardoned 36 and commuted the sentences of eight. (Bush’s most notorious commutation was that of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, which he issued just before the former White House aide had to start serving a 30-month sentence for lying to a federal judge.)</p><p class="sweet-justice" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.467em; text-align: left; ">Pardoning offenders is a crucial presidential power, says Eric Sterling of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. It’s mentioned in the same paragraph of the Constitution that makes the President commander-in-chief of the armed forces.</p><p class="sweet-justice" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.467em; text-align: left; ">“After three years, to find only one prisoner whose sentence needs to be shortened is a disgraceful failure to use this power,” Sterling says. “It's a gross failure to carry out the duty of correcting injustice. For someone who taught constitutional law, it’s inexplicable. Either he does not care, or he’s profoundly afraid to do what needs to be done.”</p></span></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>