Commentary on Pardon Statistics
In a previous post, I noted long term trends in pardon applications and pending cases in the Office of the Pardon Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice. I asked Margaret Colgate Love, a practicing attorney in Washington D.C. and former U.S. Pardon Attorney (1990 to 1997) to comment on her impressions of these data for this blog. She was kind enough to oblige and here are her remarks:
"I think you can explain the increase in applications during the Clinton Administration by two things: 1) mandatory sentencing, abolition of parole, and stepped-up federal prosecution of drug crimes beginning to be reflected in the pardon caseload; and 2) a perception at the beginning of his tenure that Clinton might be sympathetic to prisoners (unwarranted as it turned out) and some remarks that AG Reno made at the very beginning of her tenure about not favoring mandatory minimum sentences. (Note that the increase is primarily in commutations - you have to disaggregate to get a correct picture since the pardon applications did not increase appreciably). History teaches that the demand for clemency increases when the criminal justice system lacks other mechanisms for delivering individualized justice, recognizing changed circumstances, and correcting errors and inequities. It could therefore have been predicted that the enactment of the Sentencing Reform Act in 1984 would reawaken interest in clemency. In the 20 years since the federal sentencing guidelines system took effect, the president’s power to commute has been invoked frequently because of the severity of mandatory prison terms, because courts have very limited ability to individualize sentences or revise a sentence once imposed, and because post-conviction early release mechanisms like parole have either been abolished or allowed to atrophy.
I'm afraid there is no great mystery about the sharp increase in the number of cases pending during in the Clinton Administration: it is simply a reflection of the increase in applications PLUS the poor housekeeping habits of the Clinton White House. Clinton issued no clemency grants at all in four of the first five years (FY) of his presidency, and Justice Department clemency recommendations were allowed to accumulate at the WH without action, literally for years. Senior political officials at Justice had little institutional incentive to try to interest the President in an activity to which he seemed so obviously indifferent. So Clinton arrived in the final months of his presidency with a very meager pardoning record. The sudden concern for his pardoning legacy in the waning weeks of his presidency (he wanted to surpass Reagan) was what triggered the orgy of irregular grants at the end. See, e.g., Remarks at the ceremony appointing Roger Gregory to an interim seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Dec. 27, 2000, reprinted in 13 Fed. Sent. R. 228: "I wish I could do more [pardons]. I’m going to try. I’m trying to get it out of the system that exists, that existed before I got here, and I’m doing the best I can”). Newsweek reported an incident in early January in which the President wandered into the press section of Air Force One on a trip to Arkansas and asked “You got anybody you want to pardon?” Weston Kosova, Backstage at the Finale, Newsweek, Feb. 26, 2001.
While looking for cases to grant, he denied very few. As a result, his final pardoning tally does not reflect hundreds of cases that were pushed over into the first year of the Bush Administration. You can see the bulge of denials in the Pardon Attorney statistics."
"I think you can explain the increase in applications during the Clinton Administration by two things: 1) mandatory sentencing, abolition of parole, and stepped-up federal prosecution of drug crimes beginning to be reflected in the pardon caseload; and 2) a perception at the beginning of his tenure that Clinton might be sympathetic to prisoners (unwarranted as it turned out) and some remarks that AG Reno made at the very beginning of her tenure about not favoring mandatory minimum sentences. (Note that the increase is primarily in commutations - you have to disaggregate to get a correct picture since the pardon applications did not increase appreciably). History teaches that the demand for clemency increases when the criminal justice system lacks other mechanisms for delivering individualized justice, recognizing changed circumstances, and correcting errors and inequities. It could therefore have been predicted that the enactment of the Sentencing Reform Act in 1984 would reawaken interest in clemency. In the 20 years since the federal sentencing guidelines system took effect, the president’s power to commute has been invoked frequently because of the severity of mandatory prison terms, because courts have very limited ability to individualize sentences or revise a sentence once imposed, and because post-conviction early release mechanisms like parole have either been abolished or allowed to atrophy.
I'm afraid there is no great mystery about the sharp increase in the number of cases pending during in the Clinton Administration: it is simply a reflection of the increase in applications PLUS the poor housekeeping habits of the Clinton White House. Clinton issued no clemency grants at all in four of the first five years (FY) of his presidency, and Justice Department clemency recommendations were allowed to accumulate at the WH without action, literally for years. Senior political officials at Justice had little institutional incentive to try to interest the President in an activity to which he seemed so obviously indifferent. So Clinton arrived in the final months of his presidency with a very meager pardoning record. The sudden concern for his pardoning legacy in the waning weeks of his presidency (he wanted to surpass Reagan) was what triggered the orgy of irregular grants at the end. See, e.g., Remarks at the ceremony appointing Roger Gregory to an interim seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Dec. 27, 2000, reprinted in 13 Fed. Sent. R. 228: "I wish I could do more [pardons]. I’m going to try. I’m trying to get it out of the system that exists, that existed before I got here, and I’m doing the best I can”). Newsweek reported an incident in early January in which the President wandered into the press section of Air Force One on a trip to Arkansas and asked “You got anybody you want to pardon?” Weston Kosova, Backstage at the Finale, Newsweek, Feb. 26, 2001.
While looking for cases to grant, he denied very few. As a result, his final pardoning tally does not reflect hundreds of cases that were pushed over into the first year of the Bush Administration. You can see the bulge of denials in the Pardon Attorney statistics."
posted by P.S. Ruckman, Jr. | 8:22 PM
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