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Issues in Criminal Justice (JF)
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By Kathryn Wiley|Published Date: November 25, 2009
Today, President Obama is expected to issue the White House’s standard pardon of a Thanksgiving turkey, but nine months into office, Obama has yet to exercise his presidential pardon power, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The President, a former constitutional law professor, has taken longer to use the executive pardon and commutation power than all but four other presidents: George Washington, John Adams, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Approximately 1,200 people have asked for pardons because they have turned their lives around, expressed remorse for their crimes and now want to wipe the criminal slate clean of long-past offenses for which they paid the penalty.
An additional 2,000 or so federal inmates are currently seeking sentence reductions, many as a result of draconian federal mandatory minimum sentences.
"We had certainly hoped that by now President Obama would have used the pardon power," said Molly Gill of the sentencing-reform group Families Against Mandatory Minimums. "We are a little bit surprised and a little bit disappointed."
For more information about the historic pardoning power available to U.S. presidents and state governors, visit the Justice Fellowship Clemency and Overcoming Barriers to Reentry resource page. Visit the Drug Reform and Mandatory Minimum resource page to learn more about harsh penalties for nonviolent crimes.
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