Pardoned and Convicted

Over at The Hill, Patrick Fitzgerald and Ilan Wurman discuss three individuals who were pardoned by Bill Clinton who, afterward, found themselves in "further trouble with the government." Readers of this blog are probably familiar with all three of the individuals who were featured in the last-minute pardon spree of 2001. Congress "investigated" the pardons afterward.

Rodger Clinton, who was pardoned for possession and distribution of cocaine, was arrested for DUI less than a month later. Marc Rich, who was charged with tax evasion, fraud and violating trading embargoes, went on to participate in Iraq's"oil-for-food" program which assisted in arming Saddam Hussein. Glenn Braswell was convicted of perjury and mail fraud, but gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton's brother, to secure a pardon. The pardon followed, but Braswell was sent to prison in 2004 for tax evasion.

Why the interest in these pardons now?

Douglas Berman (an expert on sentencing) suggests "inevitable realities" about many individuals that seek pardons might lead one to guess repeat offenders are a common lot in the pool of clemency recipients or, at least, they are not a freakish rarity. As Berman puts it, "Tigers don't tend to change their stripes all that much." History suggests Prof. Berman is correct but, even better, the topic of presidential pardons and recidivism has been studied in a systematic fashion.

John Adams took the first mud ball in the face when he granted a pardon to the pirates of Barataria. Adams' clemency warrant spoke of repentance, but the pirates were violating the law again almost as soon as the ink dried on the document. Andrew Johnson exercised the pardon power to save the life of James Brown, convicted of murder. Brown was discovered in the hold of a ship sucking the blood out of a lifeless sailor. Nearby was the body of a second sailor who had been “served in a similar manner.” Twenty-five years later the New York Times reported the former vampire had committed two more murders while serving out his life sentence. The Times also got to beat up on Ulysses Grant for commuting the sentence of Ira Gladding, convicted of mail robbery. The commutation was obtained by a woman who was impressed by a fancy writing desk Gladding had made. She took an interest in his story and decided to lobby on his behalf. Gladding left prison and dramatically announced a new life, beyond reproach, lay before him. On the very day of the announcement, he passed a bad check, took up the name “George Case” and passed several more forged checks for hundreds of dollars.

Theodore Rooselvelt was lobbied by thousands to pardon Charles W. Anderson, who escaped from prison and made a respectable life for himself in Kansas City before being recognized on the streets by a former Leavenworth inmate. Roosevelt disagreed with his own Attorney General and granted a pardon to the fugitive who was "in trouble" with the law, once again, within months. Roosevelt also pardoned a horse thief who went on to become one of America's most prolific train and bank robbers. Woodrow Wilson commuted Robert Stroud's death sentence and Stroud returned the favor by murdering a guard in the prison lunch room. Franklin Roosevelt pardoned a congressman whose felony conviction became an issue after election. The congressman went on to be arrested three more times before his term ended.

But, again, over and above the anecdotes here and there, empirical studies have been done on the relationship between presidential pardons and further "trouble" with the law. I will discuss these studies in my next post.