Posted on 08/23/2016 7:01:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
Patricia Hearst is the first person in American history to receive a commutation from one president and a pardon from another, author Jeffrey Toobin writes in his book, "American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst." Hearst had served 22 months of a seven year sentence in federal prison for bank robbery when President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence -- sentence reductions are part of the presidential pardon power embedded in the U.S. Constitution. Later, Bill Clinton pardoned -- that is, removed all punishment and restored her civil rights -- Hearst. She was one of Clinton's infamous 140 out-the-door pardons that included fugitive gazillionaire Marc Rich.
"The fact that she got these two presidential gestures of forgiveness is the purest example of privilege on display that frankly I have ever seen in the criminal justice system today," Toobin told NPR. The commutations and pardons serve as an example of "wealth and privilege in action."
I enjoyed the book, which I finished it over the weekend. I figured Toobin must be right about Hearst's commutation and pardon because he's a high-profile writer for The New Yorker and a CNN legal analyst. But then I tweeted one of my favorite sources, political science professor P.S. Ruckman Jr., who runs the Pardon Power blog, and asked for a comment. I expected Ruckman to concur and add some perspective. Instead and to the contrary, Ruckman stated that he had seen many examples of inmates receiving a commutation from one president, then a pardon from another. Indeed, he told me over the phone, "I feel pretty sure it would be easy to find a hundred examples."
Ruckman, who had taken issue with Toobin before, has been having a field day in his blog since as he tosses out examples of recipients of presidential clemency from two presidents. "I think it could be argued that it's just a nitpicky kind of thing," Ruckman told me after he noted the mistakes was "inexcusably sloppy" as a modicum of research would have shown the assertion was just plain wrong.
I sympathize with Toobin. As every journalist knows, we all make mistakes, most of them avoidable. Toobin told me Monday he regrets the error and welcomes all corrections that improve the record. He didn't know about the pardons Ruckman cited. He should have said Hearst was the first such recipient in "modern American history."
I've always thought Hearst, a member of the family that owns The San Francisco Chronicle, was a fitting recipient of the presidential clemency because her life of crime began involuntarily -- when the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped a terrified 19-year-old. But I wasn't planning on writing on the book because I don't want to look like a suck-up to the Hearsts.
Thing is, the timing of Toobin's big mistake could not be worse. Like other recent presidents -- think George W. Bush -- President Obama was notably unmerciful in his first term. In his second term, Obama stepped up. He has commuted sentences for 562 inmates, most of them low-level drug offenders serving draconian mandatory minimum terms. But on the pardon front, Obama lags seriously behind.
Presidents used to pardon commutation recipients regularly, Ruckman noted, and "we'd like to see this happen in the future." People with felony records "need their rights restored;" winning that government seal of approval "should be a plausible goal for them." This is the time to encourage Obama to grant more pardons to people who have turned their lives around, not make them seem like spoils for the rich.
Helps if your family owns a castle.
My thoughts?
A jury of peers convicted and sentenced such criminals; all power resides with the citizen, therefore no executive, state or federal should be able to over-ride the effective will and judgement of the people- that is what appellate and supreme courts are for- in the case of error, due process violation or otherwise unjust prosecution.
We do not have a king ( divine rights etc), nor do our executives hold any higher power than the people via the courts and due process.
I am clearly convinced that money, influence and power make these commutation, pardons and other extra-judicial acts fully perverted and done only for ulterior motive ( well, maybe a few little fish are included to give the appearance of altruistic action).
If I were attempting to write an authoritative book on any topic, I’d consult with many experts, and get many perspectives, even ones I disagreed with strongly.
I would definitely check the key facts of the account I would present with this body of experts.
Patty Hearst was naive and scared to death when kidnapped. Think Stockholm Syndrome. The public wanted her to pay for all the things her father represented when the country was in the turmoil of the 60’s. The SLA were MS-13-types. Victim, plain and simple.
and locked in a closet
Necessary.
She and her friends should have been given a fair trial and shot in at dawn.
Difficult to make sense of this.
Regards,
Just consider the two sh-theels who was involved in the commutation and pardon.
I have long believed she was in on the “kidnapping” from the start.
I have read a moderate amount about the subject and have found nothing definitive to make me believe otherwise.
I remember the last shootout with CinQ and his gang. The police came under full automatic rifle fire.
On the radio, some of the leftists in Cali were bawling about how the police should have used firehoses to flush them out rather than kill them.
The reporter ripped them apart saying the gang could have shot the firehoses to pieces and there was no other way than to kill them.
Maybe ... Maybe not ... we'll probably never know for sure ...
“Helps if your family owns a castle.”
They don’t, the State of California owns it, and has for a long time. I am not sure about the 40,000 acres that it sits on though.
Today: wildfires are approaching said Castle.
A jury of peers convicted and sentenced such criminals; all power resides with the citizen, therefore no executive, state or federal should be able to over-ride the effective will and judgement of the people- that is what appellate and supreme courts are for- in the case of error, due process violation or otherwise unjust prosecution.
We do not have a king ( divine rights etc), nor do our executives hold any higher power than the people via the courts and due process.
I am clearly convinced that money, influence and power make these commutation, pardons and other extra-judicial acts fully perverted and done only for ulterior motive ( well, maybe a few little fish are included to give the appearance of altruistic action).
US Constitution
Article II
Section. 2.
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
nobama will make up for it with a 100% pardon to all members of the Clinton Crime Family.
I enjoyed the book, which I finished it over the weekend.
Groundwork for when Obama pardons every single democrat ex-con in the country so they can vote.
OMG....Hearst Castle is FABULOUS!!
Yes, I have never understood the reasoning behind this authority-always sounded like a carry=over from a monarchy.
Care to enlighten or just cut and paste?
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