A friend of the blog is giving a presentation tomorrow on the topic of executive pardons in Texas, so Grits updated my running chart of executive clemency decisions in the Rick-Perry era to include data from FY 2011 and 2012. Here it is:
So far, Gov. Rick Perry has granted about one out of every 33 clemency requests received by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles since he took office in 2001. By contrast, as president, George W. Bush granted clemency to one out of every 55 applicants during his two terms; for Barack Obama, the figure so far is one out of 239, Peter Ruckman at the Pardon Power blog reported in August. Ronald Reagan, by contrast, granted one out of every eight clemency petitions received during his tenure. For Richard Nixon, it was one out of three.
One aspect of these Texas data Grits finds fascinating: The large number (416) of applicants for whom the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency but the Governor did not grant it. That happened in a whopping 67% of cases in which the board recommended mercy over those 12 years. It would make quite an interesting analysis for some reporter or academic to examine in greater detail cases in which the BPP - who are all Perry appointees and by no means bleeding heart liberals - recommended granting clemency but the Governor denied it. Texas' parole board has a well-earned reputation as a bunch of hard-asses, but they appear more inclined to mercy than the politician who appointed them.
America's Founding Fathers viewed clemency as an essential check on legislative and judicial overreach, one that's been emasculated beyond recognition in the last quarter-century. Perhaps that's attributable to infamous cases like Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon or Bill Clinton's pardon of a prominent campaign contributor on his way out the door. Or maybe, in this hyper-punitive era of mass incarceration, where the United States has less than 5% of the world population but 25% of its prisoners, the values of forgiveness and mercy simply have fallen out of fashion.
Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist Paper #74 that without "easy access" to clemency, "justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel." Who doubts that outcome is precisely what's represented by the data in the chart above?
So far, Gov. Rick Perry has granted about one out of every 33 clemency requests received by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles since he took office in 2001. By contrast, as president, George W. Bush granted clemency to one out of every 55 applicants during his two terms; for Barack Obama, the figure so far is one out of 239, Peter Ruckman at the Pardon Power blog reported in August. Ronald Reagan, by contrast, granted one out of every eight clemency petitions received during his tenure. For Richard Nixon, it was one out of three.
One aspect of these Texas data Grits finds fascinating: The large number (416) of applicants for whom the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency but the Governor did not grant it. That happened in a whopping 67% of cases in which the board recommended mercy over those 12 years. It would make quite an interesting analysis for some reporter or academic to examine in greater detail cases in which the BPP - who are all Perry appointees and by no means bleeding heart liberals - recommended granting clemency but the Governor denied it. Texas' parole board has a well-earned reputation as a bunch of hard-asses, but they appear more inclined to mercy than the politician who appointed them.
America's Founding Fathers viewed clemency as an essential check on legislative and judicial overreach, one that's been emasculated beyond recognition in the last quarter-century. Perhaps that's attributable to infamous cases like Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon or Bill Clinton's pardon of a prominent campaign contributor on his way out the door. Or maybe, in this hyper-punitive era of mass incarceration, where the United States has less than 5% of the world population but 25% of its prisoners, the values of forgiveness and mercy simply have fallen out of fashion.
Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist Paper #74 that without "easy access" to clemency, "justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel." Who doubts that outcome is precisely what's represented by the data in the chart above?
So far, Gov. Rick Perry has granted about one out of every 33 clemency requests received by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles since he took office in 2001. By contrast, as president, George W. Bush granted clemency to one out of every 55 applicants during his two terms; for Barack Obama, the figure so far is one out of 239, Peter Ruckman at the Pardon Power blog reported in August. Ronald Reagan, by contrast, granted one out of every eight clemency petitions received during his tenure. For Richard Nixon, it was one out of three.
One aspect of these Texas data Grits finds fascinating: The large number (416) of applicants for whom the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency but the Governor did not grant it. That happened in a whopping 67% of cases in which the board recommended mercy over those 12 years. It would make quite an interesting analysis for some reporter or academic to examine in greater detail cases in which the BPP - who are all Perry appointees and by no means bleeding heart liberals - recommended granting clemency but the Governor denied it. Texas' parole board has a well-earned reputation as a bunch of hard-asses, but they appear more inclined to mercy than the politician who appointed them.
America's Founding Fathers viewed clemency as an essential check on legislative and judicial overreach, one that's been emasculated beyond recognition in the last quarter-century. Perhaps that's attributable to infamous cases like Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon or Bill Clinton's pardon of a prominent campaign contributor on his way out the door. Or maybe, in this hyper-punitive era of mass incarceration, where the United States has less than 5% of the world population but 25% of its prisoners, the values of forgiveness and mercy simply have fallen out of fashion.
Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist Paper #74 that without "easy access" to clemency, "justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel." Who doubts that outcome is precisely what's represented by the data in the chart above?
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