Posted on 05/21/2004 4:48:05 PM PDT by 11th Earl of Mar
Today: May 21, 2004 at 13:16:35 PDT
Bush Grants Pardons, Commutes Sentences
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
President Bush has granted full pardons to five people, including one South Carolina man who died last year, and commuted the sentences of two others, the Justice Department announced.
The man who died, Samuel Wattie Guerry of Kingstree, S.C., had been convicted of food stamp fraud and sentenced in October 1994 to two years' probation and fined $5,000.
A second man from Kingstree, Johnson Heyward Tisdale, was also pardoned for an identical food stamp offense in 1994, according to a Justice Department statement issued Friday.
Other pardons were granted to:
-Paul Jude Donnici of Kansas City, Mo., for a 1993 conviction for using a telephone to transmit wagering information.
-Charles E. Hamilton of Bellevue, Wash., for a 1989 mail fraud conviction.
-Kenneth Lynn Norris of Yukon, Okla., for a 1993 conviction for illegal disposal of hazardous waste.
Bush commuted the sentence of Geraldine Gordon, convicted in Las Vegas of a drug distribution charge in 1989 and sentenced to 240 months in prison. Gordon will be released on Sept. 20.
The president also commuted the sentence of Bobby Mac Berry, of Burlington, N.C., who had been sentenced to 108 months in prison in 1997 for marijuana and money laundering convictions. Berry will be released on May 27.
The Justice Department issued no further details about the cases.
Greenpeace will have a field day with that one.
what is this? how did some of these minor offenses even come to the attention of the President?
Of course, if Bush would have pardoned FALN Puerto Rican terrorists and cocaine kingpins, then this wouldn't have been news at all.
Somehow, I don't think any of these folks were big contributors to his re-election campaign.
Me thinks these people were pardoned after turning their lives over to Christ shortly after committing their offenses.
"what is this? how did some of these minor offenses even come to the attention of the President?"
Well, obviously these people have people on the outside who are dumping tons of cash into his campaign and "hiring" his brother-in-law to arrange....oh, sorry...wrong president...
Just what I was thinking. Bush doesn't strike me as the pardoning type.
Are these the first? For some reason I'm thinking that.
The president's staff always brings these cases forward.
But I always thought presidents did the pardons around Christmas, not in May.
Are these the first? For some reason I'm thinking that.
Okay, thanks.
The pardon for the marijuana conviction guy may pull a few Nader votes in November.
Well, Greenpeace will try anything, but the full story needs to be told before anyone makes further comment. The illegal disposal could be as minor as failing to properly dispose of a computer monitor, batteries, or a whole host of other common everyday items, or it could be on the more serious end.
I do notice a lack of TERRORISTS on the pardon list, unlike Clinton.
I think he pardoned a few prior to Christmas and New Year.
How does the President determine who deserves a pardon?
I searched a little. He had pardoned 11 through Nov. '03. After that I could only find the former mayor of Plano TX in 2/04, who was age 79 and in a coma at the time.
1. The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Pardon Attorney
2. Donations to your presidential library (Clintons only)
3. Family relationship (Clintons only)
Irregularities at trial? Other miscarriages of justice? They do happen, and the courts don't always clean up their messes. Or so some attorney friends tell me.
I don't know for sure, but I have a suspicion that this goes on all the time but as we all know, this is an election year and there is a REPUBLICIAN President, ergo, the "press' now pays attention. That is the difference. IMHO.
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