Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

"A no-pardon Justice Department"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this potent new commentary in the Los Angeles Times authored by Samuel Morison, a former staff attorney in the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney.  Here are excerpts: The Times' well-intentioned Oct. 30 editorial bemoaning that fact that President Obama hasn't yet granted any pardons or commutations, in which the editorial board correctly notes that the president is "aided in such decisions by the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department," betrays a profound misunderstanding of the role the pardon office plays in the clemency advisory process. In particular, The Times writes, "Ideally, presidents would give great deference to the pardon attorney's recommendations and take a liberal view of the clemency power, exercising it often and on the basis of clear standards...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on November 06, 2010 (boomark / email).