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Bush issues pardon in Kansas case

By Randall Hodgkinson

Here is a Topeka Capital-Journal article reporting that President Bush pardoned a White City farmer, who had pleaded guilty to federal fish and game violations in 1998 and received probation.

There has sort of been a lot of recent comment on pardon practice recently around the blogosphere. Sentencing Law & Policy has commented here. In fact, PardonPower is a blog dedicated to the issue regarding pardons and commutations.

I haven't done or seen a lot of pardon/commutation applications in Kansas. I have done a little historical research in the area and know that, once upon a time, commutations were not that uncommon in Kansas. Often, prisoner serving very long sentences might get commuted to a sentence that would make them parole eligible. I had one client that received a commutation from Governor Finney, who issued several commutations. But it sort of dried up when Governor Graves took office. Governor Graves never issued one pardon or commutation in eight years in office. And, as far as I know, Governor Sebelius has not granted one pardon or commutation so far.

But I have talked with attorneys in other states who have indicated success in pardon/commutation practice, especially when done with the help of a lawyer. So keep it in mind in some of those cases where either factually or legally you think you could make a good case for injustice that was not remedied by the legal system. Especially with some of the current batch of Jessica's Law cases, commutation may be the only way to get relief for some clients.

Full post as published by Kansas Defenders on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).