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Christmastime clemency is a joke, but pardons could be meaningful remedy for 'government overreach'

Governor Rick Perry's office announced its annual Christmas pardons yesterday, granting eight pardons for extremely petty, mostly long-ago offenses.I've come to be incredibly frustrated with this Christmastime pardon ritual, for reasons ably articulated in a recent blog post by P.S. Ruckman: "Christmastime pardons send a very wrongheaded - if not outright dangerous - signal to the American people that pardons are something like Christmas gifts, passed out during the holiday season, to those who actually may, or may not deserve them. Which is to say, it is no wonder the DOJ and OPA are so shy about pardons. The very timing of them implies their work re the assessment of pardon applications is a joke."Indeed, it's hard to not consider these pardons a "joke" when you look at the details...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 21, 2010 (boomark / email).