No Pardon For Libby

Newsweek ^ | 1-19-09 | Michael Isikoff

[TChad]

But Scooter did not request a pardon. So how could the prez pardon someone who hasn’t requested one?

No request is necessary. From the Washington D.C. paper The Hill:

Legal experts say a person does not need to request a pardon to receive one from the president.

Margaret Colgate Love, the U.S. pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997, said: “Historically, most people who have been pardoned have asked to be pardoned, but there have been exceptions.”

Love said President Clinton commuted the sentences of Puerto Rican nationalists without receiving requests.

“I understand there were a number of people who were the beneficiaries of final grants who didn’t ask.”

President Clinton also pardoned former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) for mail fraud even though the ex-lawmaker did not solicit clemency, according to a media report at the time.

Bush wanted to leave Scooter Libby twisting in the wind. What a disgraceful way for him to end to his presidency.

[aShepard]

.........”What...What did Clinton do for Marc Rich?..............

Well, first off, he most certainly serviced his wife, Denise, with the bent ‘Willy’ and with a huge Rich check in his hand, before he reached for her ample ta-ta’s to seal the deal.

Meanwhile, Hillary was looking through Facebook, before she contacted Huma, who continues to be her around the world “aide” as she accends to SOS!

[dodger]

This is idiotic, unpatriotic, and wrong.

[dodger]

WRONGO.

The Constitution (unfortunately) gives the President unfettered power of pardon.

[DManA]

The pardoning power is a part of our system of justice. Why do you think the founders gave it to the office?

[Paul Heinzman]

I understand that it is the president’s constitutional power. That wasn’t the point I was trying to make. I was only saying that Bush wasn’t going to override the courts’ decisions, only their sentences. I would’ve liked to see full pardons too. I’m not trying to justify the commutation of their sentences over being pardoned, just trying to understand it.

[DManA]

A pardon doesn’t override the court’s decision. A pardon FORGIVES the offense.

The granting of a pardon to a person who has committed a crime or who has been convicted of a crime is an act of clemency, which forgives the wrongdoer and restores the person’s Civil Rights.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/pardon

[Paul Heinzman]

Thanks for clearing that up. I honestly thought a pardon wiped out the court’s decision. I take great pains to identify the gaps of my ignorance and try to fill those gaps, but sometimes I speak before I research.