By the weekend, we will have passed the midpoint of December. Already Christmas is less than two weeks away. With that in mind, I will make this post short and to the point; I know you have shopping to do, in order to help spur our flagging economy. That does not mean the topic is light, or that the news is good. It is fair to say, if this blog were a movie, it would not have a happy ending.
In the 21st Century it is fashionable to say; even to believe, by and large, that life is fair. Often, it is not! Moreover, especially since the election of President Barack Obama, there is significant resistance to the idea that racial disparity still plagues us as a society. That’s too bad; it does!
Speaking directly to this point, last week, ProPublica, a New York City-based non-profit corporation that produces investigative journalism in the public interest released a report that white criminals seeking Presidential pardons over the past decade have been nearly four times as likely to succeed as minorities. The study found that blacks, specifically, have the lowest chance of all groups of receiving such a pardon.
Right off the bat, I know there are people who are tired of hearing about such findings, and who are not reluctant to say so. It is no secret that a significant portion of Americans, some secretly, and many others overtly, looked to the potential of an Obama Presidency to move the dial on such matters, and to finally, and forever put the disconcerting “myths” of racism, and other vestiges of, and lamentations about disparate treatment, based on race & ethnicity, behind us.
This faction of our society looked upon the ascendance of Mr. Obama to the Oval Office as a Rite of Passage for White America. His election was equated to having cracked the sordid code of centuries of repression, discrimination, and general ill treatment of people who could never claim the magical triumvirate, free, white, and twenty-one.
In response to the throng who have become so tired of being confronted by such claims, let me be clear. I speak and write for all those who are equally tired of being confronted by such facts. Moreover, when these atrocities are eliminated from the normal array of practices and patterns of daily life in this country, I and others who dare to continue reminding the forgetful, or otherwise inattentive, will be more inclined to “let it go.” Until then, it is my hope that institutions such as ProPublica will continue to harvest the truth so that those who care about ending such injustice can “Go Tell it on the Mountain.”
In responding to ProPublica’s findings, it is not uncommon to charge the media with unbalanced coverage, or to suggest that, quite simply, they got it wrong. That’s why two key points rise to the forefront on this matter. The first and most basic is that ProPublica is not a conventional news outlet. However, the second, and perhaps more compelling point is found in the reaction of key stakeholders.
When presented with the evidence, both current and former officials at the White House and the Justice Department said they were surprised and dismayed by the racial disparities which persist even when factors such as the type of crime and sentence are considered.” In other words, they do not deny or challenge the validity of the findings, presumably at least in part due to the strength of the research and the integrity of ProPublica.
The examination covered the period beginning near the outset of President George W. Bush’s first term. At that time President Bush elected to rely almost solely on the recommendations made by career attorneys in the Office of the Pardon Attorney. In their defense, senior aides from the Bush White House indicated Mr. Bush wanted to take politics out of the process. For their part, Justice Department officials argued the pardon process takes into account many factors that cannot be statistically measured, such as an applicant’s candor and level of remorse.
So what level of disparity are we talking about here? To put it in context, from 2001 to 2008, President Bush issued decisions in 1,918 pardon cases. Of that number 189 received favorable review; in other words, a pardon. All but 13 of the pardons went to whites. Seven pardons went to blacks, four to Hispanics, one to an Asian, and one to a Native American.
ProPublica looked at President Bush’s pardon history to the Pardons Office’s record over a President’s full term. ProPublica looked at a random sample of 500 cases. In multiple instances, white and black pardon applicants who had committed similar offenses, and who had comparable post-conviction records experienced opposite outcomes. For example:
- An African American woman from
- A white woman from the same city who faked multiple tax returns to collect more than $25,000 in refunds, was pardoned
- A black first-time drug offender – a
- A white fourth-time drug offender who did prison time for selling 1,050 grams of methamphetamine was pardoned
- All of the drug offenders forgiven during the Bush Administration at the Pardon Attorney’s recommendation – 34 of them – were white
· Are married
· Never divorced
· Never declared bankruptcy
· Never took out a large loan
· Never incurred large amounts of debt
The intent, according to officials, was to reward people who demonstrated “stability,” after their convictions. The effect has been to exclude large segments of society. The review showed that applicants with cases older than 20 years had the best chance of receiving a pardon. Married people, those who received probation rather than prison sentences, and financially stable applicants also fared better. However, when the effects of those factors and others were controlled for, using statistical methods, race emerged as one of the strongest predictor of a pardon.
The most significant disparity involved African Americans, who have historically suffered from greater financial and marital instability. Blacks make up 38% of the Federal Prison Population. In ProPublica’s nearly 500-person sample, 12% of whites were pardoned; 10% of Hispanics. None of the 62 African Americans in the random sample received a pardon.
The Founding Fathers, in framing the original intent of Presidential Pardons was to right miscarriages of justice. William Rehnquist, former Supreme Court Chief Justice, called pardons a “fail safe” against the “unalterable fact that our justice system, like the humans who administer it, is fallible.” Today’s Pardons Office places little emphasis on trying to help those who might be innocent.
Finally, the changing of the guard, from President Bush to President Obama has seen little to no change in the way the pardon’s process works. For all practical purposes, the office works much as it did under President Bush; President Obama pardons only applicants recommended by the Pardons’ Office. Mr. Obama has denied 1,019 applicants, which is more than President Clinton denied in two terms.
So, as we consider the state of Presidential clemency, “I Beg Your Pardon: The System is Broken!” I say, fix it…now!
I’m done; holla back!
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