Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Pardon me [UPDATED]

The new batch of presidential pardons announced on Monday included one granting a pardon for an Air Force GCM conviction. Here's a link to the most comprehensive report I could find on the new pardons, which aren't yet on DOJ's pardon web page.

The No Man called my attention to an interesting phenomenon -- the military accounts for a high percentage of pardons that President Bush has issued. Before Monday's batch of 14 pardons, President Bush had issued 157 pardons. 10 of them were for court-martial convictions. With the 14 new pardons, 11 of 171 (or 6.43 percent) are for court-martial convictions.

Looking at pardons by the state in which the convicting federal court is located (combining districts for those states with more than one), only two states' totals exceeded the military's (Texas, 18; South Carolina, 12), while two states (Florida; Georgia) equaled the military's 11.

(One individual pardoned by President Bush in 2006 -- William Grover Frye -- was actually convicted by both an Army GCM and the United States District Court of the Southern District of Indiana.)

Eight of the eleven pardons for court-martial convictions arose from GCMs and three arose from specials. Five were for Air Force convictions, four for Army convictions, two for Navy convictions, and one for a Coast Guard conviction. President Bush has not pardoned any Marines for court-martial convictions.

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