Word: pardoners
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Precedents. Although presidential authority to pardon a person before he is charged with a crime seems to have been established by precedent, it has rarely been exercised. Most pardons are granted after conviction or after a person has served part of a prison term. Usually they are awarded to restore full civil rights to a convict so that he may be employed in certain businesses operating under government licenses (such as bars and banks). Federal rules normally require an applicant to wait until three years after his conviction or release from prison to apply for a pardon. But in certain...
...surprising number of local judges cited the Nixon pardon as prompting them to treat offenders leniently. Los Angeles Municipal Judge Gilbert Alston ordered the release of a Viet Nam veteran who had held three hostages at riflepoint in Griffith Park during an alleged "combat flashback." Explained the judge: "If a man who almost wrecked the country can be pardoned, this defendant can be released to get proper treatment." The release was countermanded by a higher judge. County Judge Kirk Smith pardoned two traffic law violators in Grand Forks, N.D., as "an act of clemency" in response to Ford's action...
...been banished by Nixon's departure. Theologians criticized the manner in which Ford linked his decision to prayers and "the laws of God." Similarly, in a typical riposte, Senator Sam Ervin noted that Nixon had not been required to admit his guilt in return for the pardon, and added: "The pardon power vested in the President exceeds that of the Almighty, who apparently cannot pardon a sinner unless the sinner first repents" (see TIME ESSAY page...
...Ford, who had moved so swiftly to heal the nation's wounds caused by Watergate and the Viet Nam War. Now, unfairly but inevitably, his previously announced intention of seeking leniency for draft evaders and war deserters was seen by many as a calculated move to make a Nixon pardon more palatable. Those somewhat jesting earlier cracks about Ford's intellect were now reviewed in a more serious light. How could he have failed to perceive the ramifications?legal, political and moral?of his decision...
...Ford just another devious politician? Particularly among the young, the answer was a disquietingly prevalent yes. NIXON, FORD, ROCKY, THE SAME OLD SHIT, declared the complaint stenciled on an American flag at the University of Wisconsin. The Nixon pardon coming on the same day as Evel Knievel's canyon plunge, declared Wisconsin Student Michael Stiklstad, amounted to "the two biggest rip-offs of the public in one day in the history of the country...