PARDONS

Big current news involves President Trump’s pardons. One, Michael Milken, has evidently rehabilitated and the story is inspiring. But he is still banned for life from the financial marketplace.

Some are going to be controversial, like the former police chief of New York who was convicted of taking bribes. Former Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich had his sentence commuted, and when you look at his crime, trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Obama, you wonder if that deserves the sentence of 14 years. He has served 8 years.

In the articles I read, no one mentions pardons by former Presidents. I stood in my front yard in Virginia Beach visiting with a neighbor about various subjects when the subject came up about Obama’s pardons. He pardoned One Thousand Nine Hundred Twenty-Seven (1,927) criminals and my neighbor saw the list. His comment to me: “Boy, there are some really bad guys on that list.”

My neighbor is an FBI agent and he noted that it is common practice to “plead down” to save money, time and effort when the prosecution doesn’t have enough hard evidence to convict on a more serious crime. You see this on TV all the time. The names on Obama’s list had been convicted on drug charges, typically, and were serving long sentences. That was, according to my FBI neighbor, because the murder, rape or similar charges just didn’t have enough hard evidence.

Did anybody see this in the news? Back then? Now?