Thompson: No Pardon for Pollard

Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson has expressed an opinion regarding Jonathan Pollard, one of the individuals in my "Pardon Watch List" (here). The Jerusalem Post reports:

[Thompson] also said, in response to a question from the audience, that he would not pardon Jonathan Pollard based on the information currently available to him. Pollard was convicted of passing American secrets to Israel and is currently serving a life sentence. The question was greeted by enthusiastic clapping, but Thompson also received some applause for his response. "He was convicted of spying against my country," he said. "He got due process and, as far as I'm concerned, he will serve out his prison term."

While I suppose Pollard would rather not hear that kind of thing, there is something to be said for realizing that 1) it is very unlikely Thompson will ever be president 2) promising a pardon is a fairly rare campaign stunt and 3) Thompson did seem to suggest that there just might be relevant information out there that is not yet available to him.