Posted on 06/09/2007 12:11:49 PM PDT by Laverne
Professor P.S. Ruckman of Rock Valley College has studied pardons, and wrote to David Frum of NRO about the extensive array of tools available to presidents seeking to avoid injustice through use of executive power as a check on the judiciary. Some highlights of what he found:
By granting a respite (or a series of respites), the president can 1) help Libby avoid prison 2) allow the appellate process to continue, for now, without the disruption of a pardon and 3) allow any decision on a pardon to be made after the election - a clear political concern to many. Many a president has granted respites and many have explained their decisions in terms of allowing individuals to stay out of prison during the appellate process. [....]
A respite delays the imposition of a sentence. It in no way addresses issues related to due process or guilt of innocence. Nor does it change the nature (severity) of the sentence. It only delays the execution of the sentence. In my study of pardons from 1789-1932, I found hundreds of respites. Most of them delayed sentences for periods of 30 to 90 days and were granted to 1) delay executions 2) allow additional time to study a clemency application or 3) to allow an individual to remain out of prison during the appellate process. When the time period expired, presidents frequently extended the delay with a follow-up respite. Woodrow Wilson, for example, granted 16 respites to an individual, delaying entrance into prison for almost two years. After the 16th respite, he (Wilson) granted a full and unconditional pardon.
So, I am just utterly mystified that the conventional wisdom (among media and government officials) is that, somehow, Bush will be forced to pardon, or decide not to grant a pardon, to Libby if the judge does not grant bail. Bush could simply issue respites until the last day of the term, if he liked.
Hat tip: Barry Halvorsen
Thanks for posting this, laverne. I think it offers the President a risk-free option in case the amici brief filed by the 12 professors is unavailing to keep Libby out of jail pending his appeal.
I think the chances are zero that Judge Reggie Walton, who by his conduct of the trial has revealed himself to be a corrupt instrument of the DNC, will listen to the case made by the 12 professors. So they, too, will probably have to appeal.
I had not heard of respites, but this makes excellent sense! If it’s good enough for Woodrow Wilson, it should be good enough for the Dems.
It does look like a good option. Also it will defeat the goal of Walton and Fitzy: if we send Scooter to jail he will crack and give up the VP (at least that is what Fitzy thinks...”there is a cloud over the OVP”...)
I hope someone in the White House is keeping tabs on all these articles running around about how the President can help Scooter in the near term until the case is overturned on appeal.
Free Scooter; jail Fitzy.
Too bad President Bush is batting a 1000 already with the Border Patrol agents who should have never been charged; much less imprisoned.
Scooter was railroaded by a crooked prosecutor.
This stuff is too hard for the President to understand.
Who?
I agree and recently read that no one in Hollywood is standing behind Paris. Could it be her fair weather friends such Britney and Lindsay and that other one are in possibly the same trouble and want to distance themselves.
And a jury eager to convict.
Excellent find ... thanks for posting it.
Maybe he can understand the idea of being impeached, which is gonna happen if he lets these idiots send Libby to prison; that would be the next logical step.
That is my assessment of Bush, or he might just be too stupid to know how to draft pardons.
I think it’s too late for W. to be doing anything like you suggest; he needs to pardon Libby AND shove it in the rats’ faces. What I’d do would be announce I was following Slick’s lead and going into the pardon business, and I’d have Libby hand me a twenty dollar bill on national TV, issue the pardon, and use the 20 to order pizza to celebrate.
It is funny how a corrupt prosecutor gets to go home every night with no fear of being indicted for mis-using his office. He must be in the “no fear party” with Sandy, Hitlery and old Bill.
Yes, while Bush is busy betraying his country on a daily basis, I guess he will not do anything decent for Libby. I didn’t hear the weekly radio address today, but I guess it was a lulu. Was it in spanish?
What the President should do is get Gonzalez on the phone and tell him to start an investigation into why Fitzgerald milked this thing for two years when he knew the answer in two weeks.
This was a political fishing party by the Democrats ,paid for by the taxpayers of America. I expect Fitzgerald to be the next Attorney General if a Democrat is elected president.He earned it on his knees.
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