Pardon for Scooter Libby?

This blog features a series of regularly updated, brief essays regarding the possible presidential pardon of "Scooter" Libby with an emphasis on history, law and empirical research. The creator is ProfessorP.S. Ruckman, Jr., author of the forthcoming book, Pardon Me, Mr. President: Adventures in Crime, Politics and Mercy .

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Will Bush Pardon Marion Jones?

Over at The Nation, there is a call for executive clemency. The latest addition to the Pardon Watch list is thus track and field star Marion Jones, who has pled guilty to ( but has not yet been sentenced for) lying to federal investigators regarding steroid use. So, the updated list is as follows:

Could be
- Willie Mays Aikens (sold drugs to an undercover agent)
- Jose Compean (illegal arrest of an alien)
- Gilmer Hernandez (civil rights violation)
- Ron Isley (tax evasion)
- Scooter Libby (perjury, obstruction of justice)
- David H. McNab (smuggling and money laundering)
- Ignacio Ramos (illegal arrest of an alien)
- Jeffrey Skilling (fraud, conspiracy, insider trading)

Long Shots
- Duane Chapman (deprivation of liberty)
- Edwin Edwards (convicted of racketeering)
- Lawrence Hutchins (soldier, murder)
- Marion Jones (lying to investigators about steroids)
- Jack Johnson (violated the Mann Act)
- Jonathan Pollard (delivering classified information to foreign government)
- Martha Stewart (obstruction of justice)

Really Long Shots
- O.Henry (embezzling bank funds)
- John Walker Lindh (terrorism)
- Michael Milken (securities and reporting violations)
- Leonard Pielter (double murder of FBI agents)
- Michael Vick (conspiracy to operate interstate dogfighting ring)

Not Yet Convicted, Altogether Unforgivable, Undeserving of Anything Like Mercy, Should be Deported
- Gary Dahl (invented pet rocks)
- Donald Elbert (invented astro-turf)
- John Frame (defends "contemporary" Christian "music")
- Garry Marshall (produced "Pretty Woman")
- Yoko Ono (you know what she did!)
- Lou Pearlman (created "Backstreet Boys"