Our last three Presidents, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and William Clinton have all become involved in controversy over their use of the presidential pardon. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton pardoned approximately the same number of people through two four-year terms (approx. 395), while George Bush pardoned only 74 during his four-year term (Rosenblatt 1). None of these men pardoned everyone without creating some kind of controversy. George Bush, after all, pardoned men whose indictments might have incriminated him in the Iran-Contra affair. Six midnight pardons were granted by Bush, distributed among men who may have incriminated him in his Iran-Contra involvement. Still, few presidents have erupted as much controversy as the last-minute pardons executed by President Clinton as he left office in January 2001. During the last hours of his presidency, Clinton pardon 140 Americans. The list included a few popular pardons, like that of Patricia Hearst. It included even more unpopular pardons, such as that of fugitive financier Marc Rich. In light of this and other dubious pardons that Clinton executed, with so little time left before leaving office that normal protocol involving the Justice Department processing the pardons and issuing pardon warrants, Senator Russ Feingold noted “The power of money has infected almost every institution of government. It has infected the executive, infected the halls of Congress, infected our political conventions…Now it’s even infecting our sacred pardon power” (Page 07A). This analysis will review some recent pardons in order to determine if there should be new restrictions placed on this executive power.
Aside from Marc Rich receiving a pardon amid widespread speculation that it was a bought pardon due to soft money donations by Rich and his wife, Clinton also made some other last-minute highly unpopular pardons. One of them was the pardon of former Congressmen Mel Reynolds who wa...