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"Compassionate Conservatism, My Ass"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this impassioned critiqueby Jacob Sullum of former President George W. Bush's pitiful record on clemency grants in the wake of his decision earlier this week to make the Border Agents the only recipients of executive grace.  Of course, I share Jacob's frustration, and I hope he will join me in urging President Obama to make up for his predecessor's failing by granting some (perhaps many) clemencies in the days and weeks ahead. Though President Obama has now been in office only about 30 hours, he has had time to halt the GTMO trials.  Though I am not yet ready to start complaining about his failure to use his clemency power, I continue to hope there will be at least one or two symbolic clemency gestures in the days ahead to show that the new President really means for the criminal justice system what he said in his Inaugural Address about our commitment to placing "hope over fear," about the need to "choose our better history," and about the importance of rejecting "as false the choice between our safety and our ideals...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 21, 2009 (boomark / email).