Pataki Offers No Clemencies

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The New York Sun

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Lame-duck Governor Pataki, eyeing a run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, said Tuesday there will be no Christmas-season clemencies from him this year.

It marks the third time in his 12-year tenure that Mr. Pataki has issued no clemencies during the holiday season. There were no executive clemencies granted in 1998 or 2004.

Mr. Pataki’s decision drew a rebuke from an advocate for inmates.

“He’s going out as Ebenezer Scrooge before the ghost of Jacob Marley appeared rather than the Ebenezer Scrooge who has seen the light of what Christmas should be – a joyful and merciful season,” said Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York. “This is very disappointing.”

“This isn’t the Clinton White House,” countered Pataki spokesman David Catalfamo, alluding to controversial last-minute pardons issued by President Clinton as he left office in early 2001. “We aren’t having a going-out-of-business sale on justice.”

Mr. Pataki, who announced in 2005 that he would not seek a fourth, four-year term as governor, has issued 32 clemencies or pardons. That continues a tradition of relative stinginess practiced by his Democratic predecessor, Mario Cuomo, who granted clemency to 35 prisoners during his 12 years in office. By way of contrast, Democratic Gov. Hugh Carey granted relief to inmates 35 times during just his last two years in office, 1981 and 1982.

Mr. Pataki had several high-profile cases during his tenure. In 2003, he granted a posthumous pardon to comedian Lenny Bruce for his 1964 obscenity conviction. In 1996, Mr. Pataki granted clemency to Charline Brundidge, a domestic violence victim who fatally shot her abusive husband.

Twenty-eight of Mr. Pataki’s 32 clemencies, including the lone one he issued last year, went to inmates serving time for violations of Rockefeller-era drug laws, which required stiff sentences for the possession of even small quantities of illegal drugs. Two years ago, Pataki signed legislation that overhauled the drug laws and provided a mechanism other than clemency for those convicts to get their sentences reduced.

“Throughout the years I have extended clemencies and pardons in those limited instances that demand redress,” Mr. Pataki said Tuesday. “With the success of the Rockefeller drug law reforms, there are fewer cases that meet that high bar. Those high standards are as important today as they were when I took office almost twelve years ago.”


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