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Another public and potent call to reinvigorate the pardon power

By Douglas A. Berman

Just appearing at The National Law Journal is former US pardon attorney Margaret Colgate Love's latest call to get the presidential pardon power working properly again.  This latest piece, which is co-authored with another former pardon attorney, John Stanish, is titled simply "Reinvigorate the Power."  Here are excerpts: Pardons are granted only at the end of a president's term, so goes the conventional wisdom. In reality, most presidents have hit the ground running where pardoning is concerned.  The best of them have made strategic use of this most personal power from the very beginning to advance their policy goals. For example, in his first year in office, Abraham Lincoln issued 80 grants of pardon to ordinary citizens, in addition to his more famous grants to soldiers...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 19, 2009 (boomark / email).