It's been a few months since I wrote a blog post, but today I was sitting at the airport watching the news when I heard that Governor Haley Barbour has pardoned just under 200 criminals on his last day in office.
The number alone is alarming. But then we hear that at least 4 of the individuals pardoned were convicted murderers, one of whom killed his wife while she was holding their 6 week old son. The level of concern increased.
Most Americans who made it out of high school social studies classes know that act of pardoning a criminal can be and is performed by both the president and also the governors of each state. According to the USDOJ (that's the United States Department of Justice for those of you who are challenged by acronyms), the president can pardon federal crimes only, and all state crimes are to be pardoned by the governor of the appropriate state.
Now, as a citizen of this country who feels at least moderately protected and comforted by the idea that we have police forces and federal crime bureaus that hunt down criminals and punish or imprison them, the idea of pardoning criminals bothers me. But like many others, I had not really given it much thought until I heard about Gov. Barbour's recent pardons. I mean, yes, there are plenty of criminals wandering the streets that have not been caught and who probably never will be caught, but to let convicted and imprisoned criminals out early? To forgive them of their crimes? Is that something that our government officials should be allowed to do? Is that something any human should be allowed to do? I'm surprised that more Christians aren't jumping out of their seats about a non-god being able to forgive humans for their secular "sins".
Some who are aware of the pardon, or who are intimate with the Pardon Attorney (there's another government job that could be easily eliminated if this process was eradicated), know that there is at least a process to pardoning criminals. Convicted criminals must apply for a pardon, and they must wait 5 years since their most recent release from confinement, or since their most recent conviction if the sentence did not include confinement. But don't start feeling too warm and fuzzy and safe just yet--even that waiting period can be waived "in the most exceptional circumstances" (Office of the Pardon Attorney).
Unfortunately, in Mississippi (where Barbour was governor), "exceptional circumstances" are apparently defined as working in the governor's mansion doing odd jobs. Apparently it is a Mississippi tradition for the governor to pardon any criminal who worked in his mansion. Oh great, so if you can use a mop or clip a hedge, you're not a murderer anymore? I can tell you that relatives of the victims of these murders definitely do not share this sentiment, nor do they have any kind of appreciation for ol' fashioned Mississippi bureaucratic tradition.
Of course these pardons, including 5 murderers released in 2008, and the release of Ernest Scott Favre (yes, you recognize his last name) who killed his friend while driving drunk one night, have caused an uproar. Even the government is reacting. Democractic Representative David Baria is sponsoring two bills, one that requires a hearing to be held before a felon can be pardoned, and another that forbids convicted murderers from working in the governor's mansion as part of the prison trusty system program. But even these actions are only attempting to curb the pardoning privileges of the Mississippi governor.
One state down, 49 states and one nation to go until criminals remain criminals and cannot be pardoned on a whim.
http://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardon_instructions.htm
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/01/governors-murder-pardons-prompts-call-to-curb-reprieves/1
