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Editorial:
The
Presidential
Turkeys
11/28/03
David Borden, Executive
Director, [email protected], 11/28/03
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David
Borden
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One of the feature stories
on the evening news this week was, in what has become an annual White House
tradition, the pardoning by George W. Bush of two turkeys. "Stars"
and "Stripes," their names selected in an online poll on the presidential
web site, will live out their natural lives on a farm in rural Virginia.
As a 25 year vegetarian,
I can't fault the turkey pardons. As a drug reformer, though, I couldn't
help but think of another tradition that has never been used sufficiently,
and which has not been observed at all for during the nearly three years
since the Bush inauguration. That tradition is the granting of clemencies
and pardons, in time for holidays and at other times, of human beings.
A few controversial clemencies
by Bill Clinton in his last days in office seem to have gotten the annual
pardon tradition off-track. Despite some criticisms, however, most
of the Clinton commutations were solid. I've even benefited from
some of them; I've gotten to meet Dorothy Gaines and Kemba Smith, mandatory
minimum prisoners who shouldn't have been locked up and who deserved their
freedom. The only problem with the Clinton drug pardons is that there
were too few of them.
George Bush has yet to show
such mercy in his term. There is still time, and he has strong allies
in high places -- such as US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who
called for resumption of the presidential pardon as part of a speech to
the American Bar Association last August attacking mandatory minimum sentences
and an over-reliance on incarceration. "A people confident in its
laws and institutions should not be ashamed of mercy," Kennedy said.
"Our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences
too long."
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| George Bush pardons turkeys but not humans |
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I even have a few names to
suggest to him for starters -- Chrissy Taylor and Michael Mahoney, prisoners
identified by Families Against Mandatory Minimums as almost having made
the Clinton commutation list but not quite. Robert Riley would be
another good one, a good man (and Drug War Chronicle reader) serving
a life prison term. Lawrence and Lamont Garrison never should have
been imprisoned in the first place, and should be released immediately.
It's too late for Peter McWilliams, but I would really like to see his
friend, medical marijuana patient and activist Todd McCormick, go free
early. I protested the sentencing of medical marijuana provider Bryan
Epis in Sacramento, and he should get out too. And a few hundred
thousand more...
It's all well and good to
pardon a couple of turkeys, make a speech for the press and have a laugh.
But George Bush should send some people home too. Because prison
is no laughing matter, and a lot of people are waiting. The time
is now.
-- END --
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Issue #313, 11/28/03
Editorial: The Presidential Turkeys |
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Judge James Gray in Senate Bid -- Will Challenge Boxer, Call for End to Drug War |
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DRCNet Temporarily Suspending Our Web-Based Write-to-Congress Service Due to Funding Shortfalls -- Your Help Can Bring It Back -- Keep Contacting Congress in the Meantime |
| Perry Fund Accepting Applications for 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 School Years, Providing Scholarships for Students Losing Aid Because of Drug Convictions |
| The Reformer's Calendar
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