Depending on Mercy

Remember the saying from the original 1950's Superman TV series..."Truth, Justice and the American Way"? Boy, it might have been that way 50 years ago, but what about now?

A Death Almost Too Horrible to Believe

We're going to tell you the story of Patrick Cavanaugh, a 60-year old inmate at the Ely State Prison in Ely, Nev. Patrick was an insulin-dependent diabetic who was imprisoned at Ely for two years. During his time at Ely, Patrick was denied regular insulin injections, which, as many people know, is essential for diabetics to lead a healthy life. As a result of this deprivation of insulin, he developed gangrene. This didn't go unnoticed by prison staff: the smell of putrefying flesh was hard to miss. The medical staff could have opted to have the decayed, gangrenous limbs amputated, which would have saved Patrick's life. Instead, they did nothing, and Patrick essentially rotted to death.

I am horrified. You see, I am also a diabetic. Surely the taskmaster who was responsible for this prisoner's care was not a torturer..... as this prisoner, Mr. Cavanaugh, wasn't tortured. He died from medical neglect though very much in unspeakable pain. This is not the "American Way" that I know.

And while I am speaking of neglect and prisons, there is an overlooked executive responsibility -- that of presidental pardons, but maybe this item is considered only for the bleeding heart bunch. Especially when you can say "Alberto Gonzales" and now, "Michael Mukasey," and oh, someone else called a "pardon attorney" -- all operating in what we now know is a disfunctional, politicized Department of Justice.

Begging Bush's Pardon

THE first rule for handling requests for presidential pardons was set down in a report to Congress in 1887, during Grover Cleveland’s first term in office. It said they were to be sent to the attorney general’s “pardon clerk” for “his prompt and appropriate attention.”

Just as important, according to the report, was that the petitioners were to be given a fair shake. They were almost always convicted criminals, but that didn’t mean they were all guilty as charged or deserving of the harsh punishments that had been inflicted on them. And so, the pardon attorney in those days was under instructions to “accord to the convict all that he may be fairly entitled to have said in his favor.” The attorney general, thus provided with “an impartial representation” of the case, was to tell the president what he thought should be done.

Needlesstosay, it appears that clemency seekers are just out of luck. Margaret Colgate Love, who was the pardon attorney from 1991 to 1997, says of her former co-workers: “It’s hard to run an operation when you genuinely feel that what you’re doing doesn’t mean anything to anybody.”

So I guess it is what it is.....

As George W. Bush entered the final year of his presidency, it was widely speculated that he would hand out a big bunch of pardons before bowing out — albeit, it was hoped, far more carefully than Mr. Clinton did. But saying no is as much an exercise of the pardon power as saying yes, and it is here that President Bush stands out in comparison with his predecessors. He has already denied more pardon and clemency petitions than any post-World War II president. In his first seven years in office, he rejected 5,966 requests, almost twice as many as Bill Clinton did in eight years, five times more than his father did in four years, and almost five times as many as Ronald Reagan did in eight years.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration’s pardon program is in complete disarray. According to the pardon attorney’s official reports, there is still a huge backlog of clemency petitions in the bureaucratic mill, a total of 2,501 requests “pending” as of Jan. 1.

Interestingly, while reading this article on pardons...there was a blurb about Bill Clinton. It seems Roger Adams, who had succeeded Ms. Love, was a pardon attorney for Bushco, who was in the Justice Department throughout the Clinton presidency. But I'll let you be the judge.... of what might be the "Truth"!

Although the backlog of requests did not figure in the inspector general’s inquiry, Mr. Adams had long been at the center of complaints about the pardon process. He had refused in the final days of the Clinton administration to consider new clemency requests, telling petitioners to send their papers directly to the White House. And, of course, Bill Clinton’s controversial last-minute pardons, some granted without Justice Department review, tainted both his presidency and the entire pardon system.

So there's President Bush, whose Texas past tells me he is disinclined to pardon anyone. There's Roger Adams, who refused to consider new clemency requests... and then just to throw a little meat at you, Yahoo News has the skinny on prison populations: Record-high ratio of Americans in prison

excerpt:

NEW YORK - For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.

-snip-

The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails. That's out of almost 230 million American adults.

The report said the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. It said the U.S. also is the leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other former Soviet bloc nations which round out the Top 10.

The U.S. also is among the world leaders in capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, its 53 executions in 2006 were exceeded only by China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan.

I'd like to put in a plug for Bush to pardon Compean and Ramos before he leaves office. Doing the right thing, is easy...and at a time where legacy just might trump machoism. Bush Should Pardon Border Agents

If pardon politics and the 2008 campaign interests you...go here: Sentencing Law and Policy I'm sure we're going to hear a whole lot about this topic real soon!!!

Lastly I'm just asking for the return of Truth, Justice and The American Way...and throw in some mercy, because it is the right thing to do.