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Still waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting ... on the clemency front

By Douglas A. Berman

President Obama is about to begin his third month in office still without having made any use (or any mention) of his clemency powers.  As I spotlighted in a post here a few weeks ago, P.S. Ruckman in this post has documented that the new guy "is already among the slowest presidents to tend to this constitutional duty."  As Ruckman has noted, the vast majority of Presidents have used their clemency power within their first month in office. Disappointingly, President Obama is following the more recent trend of more recent presidents to wait a long time before getting serious about clemencies.  But, as I have said before and will keep on saying, the failure of modern presidents to use their clemency powers actively is especially troubling because the federal criminal justice system in now so much larger (and also so much harsher) than during any other period in American history...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 20, 2009 (boomark / email).