Posted on 12/23/2008 12:36:59 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
WASHINGTON – Before leaving for the holidays, President Bush on Tuesday commuted the prison sentence of a drug offender and granted 19 pardons, including one to a man who helped the Jewish resistance in the 1940s.
With this latest batch, which includes forgiveness for convictions ranging from gun and drug violations to bank and mail fraud, Bush has granted a total of 191 pardons and nine commutations. That's fewer than half as many as Presidents Clinton or Reagan issued during their two terms.
Included in the latest list is Charles Winters, who is considered a hero in Israel.
Winters, who died in the 1980s in Florida, was in the airplane business after World War II. He bought up former military cargo planes and used them to transport fruit and other products. He later started helping his Jewish friends who were shipping arms to Jews trying to found their own state in the Middle East.
Winters, a Protestant from Boston, could fly his planes in and out of the region without interference from authorities. In 1948, three of his planes left Miami, picked up weapons in Azores and Czechoslovakia and then left the planes and arms in Palestine.
Winters was convicted of violating the Neutrality Act, fined $5,000 and sentenced to serve 18 months in prison. The act is designed to ensure that financial assistance and arms are not provided to parties in foreign conflicts where the U.S. has not taken sides.
Reginald Brown, an attorney who worked on the Winters pardon, said Bush's pardon "rights a historical wrong and honors Charlie's belief that the creation of the Jewish state was a moral imperative of his time. ... Charlie Winters helped shape human history for the better."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Is he going to pardon the border guards?
Call the White House and ask. Thousands of us should call.
Nope.
I wonder if he can continue to issue pardons until he leaves office? I suppose there’s still a slim chance. . .
someone post the white house number, i’ll call
John Allen Aregood of Riviera, Texas. Conspiracy to harbor and transport illegal aliens.
Probably not since his Justice Department prosecuted them.
My opinion of George Bush will plummet if Ramos and Compean aren’t set free. Conservatives will always point out the drug dealers and other low lifes that did get pardoned by GW Bush. Just for that he would be smart to pardon them
...and no word on Ramos and Compean
Included in the latest list is Charles Winters, who is considered a hero in Israel. .......
Winters wasn’t Jewish. This is a great story and was in the papers a few months back. How his son was trying to get his father a pardon
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
(202) 456-1414
“Is he going to pardon the border guards?”
Or this law enforcement officer who was doing her job? The police dog bit an illegal alien engaged in a crime and SHE is in prison for violating his ‘civil rights’....
http://www.policedefense.org/index.html
With 25 letters of commendation, two awards, and nine years of service to the Prince Georges County Police Department in Maryland, Stephanie Mohr does not sound like an officer who should be spending years in jail away from her young son, Adam. Unfortunately, this is already Mohrs fifth year of a prison sentence that she does not deserve. With your help though, we can get this innocent officer out of jail and reunited with her son.
This is the last chance that we have to help Stephanie.
In September of 1995, Mohr was on patrol with her police dog Valk. She was patrolling Takoma Park, an area that had been known to have many recent burglaries. When Mohr and her partner, Sergeant Anthony Delozier, got a call for backup from an officer who had spotted two men on the roof of a nearby store, they knew they may have found the criminals.
Ricardo Mendez and Herrera Cruz were the two suspects who were ordered to get down and face the wall. Mendez then made a move that looked as if he were about to flee the scene.
As Mohr had been trained to do in this type of situation, she released her canine. Valk, the police dog, was trained to perform the police departments standard bite and hold and that is exactly what he did. The dog bit Mendez on the leg and held him there until the officers could apprehend him.
Mendez and Herrera were convicted of 4th degree burglary and were then deported. The two illegally re-entered the U.S. again and were arrested for selling crack cocaine. They were then deported a second time.
Stephanie was relieved that she had gotten these two criminals off of our streets and back to their country.
She soon gave birth to her son Adam and was a proud mother.
Unfortunately, her joy did not last very long. Five years after this incident and one day before the statue of limitations was set to expire, Mohr was indicted by the U.S Department of Justice.
Looking for cases of police brutality the U.S Department of Justice indicted Stephanie and two fellow officers charging them with conspiracy charges and violating Ricardo Mendezs civil rights.
At the trial, Officer Mohr was found not guilty of conspiracy. A hung jury, voting 11 to 1 in favor of Mohr failed to reach a unanimous verdict on the civil right charges.
The prosecutor sought a retrial that was held in 2001. The trial was scheduled even though the jurors from the first trial said that the case lacked merit. At this trial the prosecution convinced the jury that Mohr had released her canine on innocent minority citizens.
In this second trial, the judge allowed prejudicial testimony into evidence that Mohr had used racial epithets in making a prior arrest using her canine. The charges did not start out as racial but the prosecutors needed to do something desperate to save their case. This questionable evidence should not have been allowed into the courtroom.
The jury was stacked with minorities who would be sympathetic with illegal immigrants. The government even flew Mendez back into the U.S. at taxpayer expense. They did this in order to have Mendez testify against Mohr despite the fact that he was a convicted felon.
Because of the racial tactics the prosecution had to use to save their failing case, Stephanie was convicted of a federal criminal rights violation and given a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
Stephanie is now serving her fifth year of the ten year prison sentence.
This is the fifth year that she has had to spend away from her son Adam. She has missed so many important days in her sons life like birthdays and holidays because of this prison sentence she does not deserve.
Stephanie has not lost hope though. She has faith in the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. We are doing everything we can to help Mohr.
We have appealed the trial Courts decision denying Stephanie a new trial to the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia.
Last month we filed our request for a Commutation of Sentence to President George W. Bush.
With just weeks left in his administration, President Bush is now reviewing Pardon requests. You and I both know that no one in the country deserves her freedom more than Stephanie Mohr.
Stephanies eight year old son has now spent the last 5 years of his life without his mother by his side.
Five years of her life have been wasted in prison because she followed police procedure when she ordered her police dog Valk to stop a suspect from fleeing the scene. Five years that can NEVER EVER be given back.
The suspect an illegal alien from San Salvador was convicted of selling drugs and deported. —— But outrageously the prosecutor brought him back, at public expense, to testify against Stephanie.
And Stephanie was convicted of violating his civil rights.
Just as unfair as the charges, the Judge, blindly following the recommendation of the Civil Rights Division, imposed a draconian ten-year sentence that both Stephanie and her son Adam are both serving. What can be more outrageous!!!
At least he’s consistent. /gag
“John Allen Aregood of Riviera, Texas. Conspiracy to harbor and transport illegal aliens.”
Ugh!
See post 16
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