Begging his Pardon - Gene Healy
As Alexander Hamilton noted in Federalist No. 74, the pardon power is a necessary corrective to the severity of the criminal justice system, without which "justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel." The pardon power is there to do justice in individual cases when strict application of the laws would thwart it. Today, given the increased severity and scope of federal criminal law, we should expect broader use of the pardon to ease injustice and draw attention to aspects of the system that cry out for reform.
Unfortunately for those making the case for more pardons, Americans tend to remember first the scandals: President Richard Nixon's pardon of Teamsters chief Jimmy Hoffa, President Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon, President George H. W. Bush's pardon of several Iran-Contra figures, and President Clinton's pardon of financier Marc Rich, whose ex-wife had conveniently pledged nearly a half-million dollars to the Clinton library.
But executive clemency also has a proud history. Upon taking presidential office, Thomas Jefferson pardoned and freed political dissenters who had been convicted under the Sedition Act, deeming that act a "nullity as absolute and palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image."
President Warren Harding, no stranger to scandal himself, wielded the pardon to free Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs. Debs had been jailed during President Woodrow Wilson's crusade against opponents of World War I, but Harding freed him and other war protesters on Christmas Day 1921. "I want him to eat his Christmas dinner with his wife," Harding said.
Even some of Clinton's late-hour pardons had a benevolent aspect. For instance, Clinton pardoned Kemba Smith, a first-time offender who, at age 19, had been sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for cooperating with her drug-dealing boyfriend, even though the prosecutor admitted that Smith had never used or sold drugs.