{"id":2213,"date":"2020-10-12T16:08:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T23:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2213"},"modified":"2020-10-12T16:08:27","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T23:08:27","slug":"use-the-pardon-power-more-aggressively-oh-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2213","title":{"rendered":"Use the Pardon Power More Aggressively&#8230;&#8230;Oh&#8230;&#8230;.Wait&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the headline from Politico:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/Suspect in Whitmer kidnap plot was pardoned in Delaware last year\">&#8220;Suspect in Whitmer kidnap plot was pardoned in Delaware last year.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now we know, from reading years of pro-leniency sources, that the Politico headline can&#8217;t be right.\u00a0 It&#8217;s not that we give clemency to dangerous folks.\u00a0 Noooooo!\u00a0 It&#8217;s that we&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Still, the Politico story tells us:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">Delaware Gov.\u00a0<span class=\"rollover-people\" data-behavior=\"rolloverpeople\"><a class=\"rollover-people-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/john-carney\" data-nid=\"186495\">John Carney<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(D) last year signed the pardon of one of the men accused this week of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov.\u00a0<span class=\"rollover-people\" data-behavior=\"rolloverpeople\"><a class=\"rollover-people-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/gretchen-whitmer\" data-nid=\"510436\">Gretchen Whitmer<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(D),\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.delawareonline.com\/story\/news\/crime\/2020\/10\/09\/last-year-carney-pardoned-bear-man-charged-plot-kidnap-michigan-governor\/5935065002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Delaware\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">News Journal<\/span>\u00a0first reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">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\u00a0possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, assault and burglary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A spokesman for Carney said in a statement that the governor called Croft&#8217;s federal\u00a0charges &#8220;disturbing&#8221; and called for everyone involved with the kidnapping plot in Michigan to be &#8220;prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Just so.\u00a0 Now we&#8217;re going to talk tough!\u00a0 Or pretend to\u00a0 &#8212;\u00a0 now that the &#8220;reformed&#8221; criminal has returned to his craft.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">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&#8217;s pardon because his criminal record was from two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8220;It appeared to everyone involved that his offenses were in his past and that he had gotten himself on the right track,&#8221; Marshall said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Let\u00a0 me translate that:\u00a0 &#8220;Although it&#8217;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&#8217;s good enough for government work.\u00a0 Or, even if not, at least it&#8217;s good enough when the pardoned prisoner&#8217;s next crime is likely to victimize somebody else.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Marshall added that neither state prosecutors nor the Board of Pardons would have endorsed Croft&#8217;s pardon had they known &#8220;what the future held.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Let me translate that, too:\u00a0 &#8220;Of course <strong><em>no one<\/em><\/strong> knows what the future will hold, but, to get good PR for being &#8220;compassionate,&#8221; and because we know an increasingly <del>pro-criminal<\/del> reform minded culture is not about to hold us accountable, we&#8217;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&#8217;t have to try all that hard to con us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the headline from Politico:\u00a0 &#8220;Suspect in Whitmer kidnap plot was pardoned in Delaware last year.&#8221; Now we know, from reading years of pro-leniency sources, that the Politico headline can&#8217;t be right.\u00a0 It&#8217;s not that we give clemency to dangerous folks.\u00a0 Noooooo!\u00a0 It&#8217;s that we&#8217;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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clemency"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Use the Pardon Power More Aggressively......Oh.......Wait............... - Crime &amp; 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