Bush Pardons 29, but Not Libby
Forgiveness Follows Late-Term Tradition
In July, the president commuted the perjury-and-obstruction sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, center, the former top aide to Vice President Cheney.
(By Jonathan Ernst -- Reuters)
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
President Bush granted pardons yesterday to carjackers, drug dealers, a moonshiner and a violator of election laws, but not to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his vice president's former top aide, who was convicted in the case of the leaked identity of a CIA operative.
Nearly all of those to win pardons this year were small-time crooks who at most were imprisoned for five years. Many never served time at all and instead were fined or put on probation.
In all, Bush pardoned 29 convicts and reduced the prison sentence of one more in the end-of-the-year presidential tradition.
Bush cut short the 1992 prison sentence of crack cocaine dealer Michael Dwayne Short of Hyattsville, who will be released Feb. 8 after serving 15 years of his 19-year sentence. Short's commutation comes the same day as the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to allow about 19,500 federal prison inmates, most of them black, to seek reductions in crack cocaine sentences.
Short must still serve a term of supervised release.
In July, Bush commuted Libby's 2 1/2 -year sentence, sparing Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff from serving any prison time after being convicted of perjury and obstructing justice. Libby, who recently dropped appeals to have his convictions overturned, has paid a $250,000 fine and remains on two years probation.
Libby was the only person to face criminal charges in the case of the 2003 leak of then-CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's identity.
A pardon amounts to federal forgiveness for one's crime, while a commutation cuts short an existing prison term.
Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Bush has granted 142 pardons and commuted five sentences since taking office in 2001.
