“Obama Has Granted Clemency More Rarely Than Any Modern President”

The title of this post is the headline of this story by Dafna Linzer of ProPublica, which tells a tale familiar to regular readers of this blog (and a story which I hope and tentatively predict will change after next week). Here is how the lengthy piece gets started:

A former brothel manager who helped the FBI bust a national prostitution ring. A retired sheriff who inadvertently helped a money launderer buy land.  A young woman who mailed ecstasy tablets for a drug-dealing boyfriend, then worked with investigators to bring him down.  All of them and hundreds more were denied pardons by President Obama, who has granted clemency at a lower rate than any modern president, a ProPublica review of pardons data shows.

The Constitution gives the president unique power to forgive individuals for federal offenses. While pardons do not wipe away convictions, they can restore a person’s full rights to vote, possess firearms and obtain business licenses, as well as remove barriers to certain career opportunities and adoptions.  For many applicants, a pardon is simply an opportunity for a fresh start.

But Obama has parceled out forgiveness far more rarely than his recent predecessors, pardoning just 22 individuals while denying 1,019.  He has given pardons to roughly 1 of every 50 individuals whose applications were processed by the Justice Department.  At this point in his presidency, Ronald Reagan had pardoned 1 of every 3 such applicants. George H.W. Bush had pardoned 1 in 16.  Bill Clinton had pardoned 1 in 8.  George W. Bush had pardoned 1 in 33.

Obama also has been stingy with commutations, applications for early release by those still serving federal prison sentences.  Under Reagan and Clinton, applicants for commutations had a 1 in 100 chance of success.  Under George W. Bush, that fell to a little less than 1 in 1,000.  Under Obama, an applicant’s chance is slightly less than 1 in 5,000.

Though the data above covers familiar ground for those who follow these matters, this press story goes on to report a lot of notable new information.  Here is a sample:

Several administration officials who agreed to discuss pardons on the condition of anonymity said the president pardoned nearly every person recommended by Rodgers for approval in his first two years in office, but that such applicants were few and far between.  While the number of applicants has increased in recent years, Obama — based on Rodgers’ recommendations — is denying more people more swiftly than any of his recent predecessors, the data shows….

Currently, two government officials said, there are about a dozen positive recommendations and hundreds of negative ones waiting for the president to act on.  At least one commutation request is pending.  The White House also has asked for a fresh review of the case of Clarence Aaron, who is serving a triple life-sentence, without parole, for his role in a drug conspiracy.  ProPublica and The Washington Post published a story about Aaron’s case in May.