Use the Pardon Power More Aggressively……Oh…….Wait……………

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Here’s the headline from Politico:  “Suspect in Whitmer kidnap plot was pardoned in Delaware last year.”

Now we know, from reading years of pro-leniency sources, that the Politico headline can’t be right.  It’s not that we give clemency to dangerous folks.  Noooooo!  It’s that we’re a punitive, compassion-challenged country that keeps reformed prisoners needlessly locked up for years for no reason other than the sadistic pleasure of it.

Still, the Politico story tells us:

Delaware Gov. John Carney (D) last year signed the pardon of one of the men accused this week of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), the Delaware News Journal first reported.

Carney in April 2019 signed off on the pardon for Barry Gordon Croft Jr., who faced a series of charges in Delaware during the mid-1990s, including possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, assault and burglary.

A spokesman for Carney said in a statement that the governor called Croft’s federal charges “disturbing” and called for everyone involved with the kidnapping plot in Michigan to be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Just so.  Now we’re going to talk tough!  Or pretend to  —  now that the “reformed” criminal has returned to his craft.

Mat Marshall, a spokesman for Attorney General Kathy Jennings (D), said in a statement to the outlet that her predecessor, Matt Denn, did not oppose Croft’s pardon because his criminal record was from two decades ago.

“It appeared to everyone involved that his offenses were in his past and that he had gotten himself on the right track,” Marshall said in a statement.

Let  me translate that:  “Although it’s been known for decades that participation in rehab programs in the tightly controlled environment of a prison is a notoriously poor predictor of out-of-prison behavior, it’s good enough for government work.  Or, even if not, at least it’s good enough when the pardoned prisoner’s next crime is likely to victimize somebody else.”

Marshall added that neither state prosecutors nor the Board of Pardons would have endorsed Croft’s pardon had they known “what the future held.”

Let me translate that, too:  “Of course no one knows what the future will hold, but, to get good PR for being “compassionate,” and because we know an increasingly pro-criminal reform minded culture is not about to hold us accountable, we’re going to let the risks of an unknown future fall on whoever shows up as the victim rather than on the strong-arm who didn’t have to try all that hard to con us.”