Title

A Scandalous Pardon

May 19, 2007

1.= U.S. presidents have pardoned approximately 20,000 persons in the 20^th century alone.

A.= Time Magazine’s list of the ten most notorious pardons.

2.= Micah 7:18 – God pardons sin because He delights in mercy.

A.= John 8:1-11 – Jesus pardons an adulterous woman.

· Luke 8:2 – Mary Magdalene delivered of seven demons

· Mark 14:3 – Simon the Pharisee healed = of leprosy.

“Simon had been healed of the leprosy, and it wa= s this that had drawn him to Jesus. He desired to show his gratitude, and at Chris= t's last visit to Bethany he made a feast for the Saviour and His discipl= es.” {DA 557}.

· Luke 7:36-50 – Simon was a Pharisee.

· The Indian and the Cowboy.

“As did Nathan with David, Christ concealed His = home thrust under the veil of a parable. He threw upon His host the burden of pronouncing sentence upon himself. Simon had led into sin the woman he now despised. She had been deeply wronged by him. By the two debtors of the parable, Simon and the woman were represented.” {DA 567}

· John 11:1-2 – Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus.

· Mark 16:9 – He appeared first to Mary Magdalene.

“When to human eyes her case appeared hopeless, = Christ saw in Mary capabilities for good. He saw the better traits of her characte= r. . . Through His grace she became a partaker of the divine nature. The one who had fallen, and whose mind had been a habitation = of demons, was brought very near to the Saviour in fellowship and ministry. It was Mary who sat at His feet and learned= of Him. It was Mary who poured upon His head the precious anointing oil, and bathed His feet with her tears. Mary stood beside the cross, and followed H= im to the sepulcher. Mary was first at the tomb after His resurrection. It was Mary who first proclaimed a risen Saviour.̶= 1; {DA 568.2}

· Governor Neff’s pardon.

Time Magazine = Ten Most Notorious Pardons

WHISKEY REBELS, 1794 =

Congress enacted a steep tax on spirits= in 1791 to help pay down the national debt, and hard-hit small producers prote= sted by taking to the streets in western Pennsylvania. They quickly formed a multi-state armed rebellion and President George Washington called in 13,000 troops to quell the opposition. Intent on emphasizing federalist power, the government charged the whiskey rebel lead= ers with treason against the U.S., although many were released due to a lack of evidence. Virginia Governor He= nry Lee, on Washington's behalf, issued a general pardon for those who had participated "in the wicked and unhappy tumults and disturbances lately existing," even tho= ugh some of the rebels had not even been indicted. Only a few men had trials and two were convicted of treason (which meant death by hanging). Eventually, <= st1:State w:st=3D"on">Washington pardo= ned those who had treason convictions and indictments. It was the first pardon = in American history that overturned a criminal conviction, and the first time under the young U.S. Constitution that the federal government wielded milit= ary force to quell its own citizens.

CITIZENS OF THE CONFE= DERATE STATES, 1865

The 17th President, Andrew Johnson, took office the day that Lincoln died from gunshot wounds. Johnson had a mixed reputation, having stayed in = the Senate as his home state of T= ennessee seceded in 1861; he was popular in the North, but considered a traitor by t= hose in the South. After becoming President in 1865, he moved forward on reconstruction. While Congress was not in session, he pardoned Southerners = in the Confederate States on the condition that they would take an oath of loy= alty to the Union. But Johnson, who grew up p= oor and had a dislike of the rich and privileged, wouldn't grant blanket amnest= y to several classes of Southerners, requiring leaders and wealthy men to obtain their own special Presidential pardons.

JIMMY HOFFA, 1971

The head of the Teamsters had been serv= ing a 15-year prison sentence for jury tampering and fraud when President Richard Nixon pardoned him on Dec. 23, 1971. Nixon had one condition, however: Hoffa should "not engage in direct or indirect management of any labor organ= ization" until at least March 1980. Hoffa agreed and supported Nixon's re-election b= id in 1972. It is believed that Hoffa was trying to reassert his power over the Teamsters, defying Nixon's requirement, when he disappeared in 1975.

RICHARD NIXON, 1974 <= /span>

A little over a year after he resigned = in the wake of Watergate, Richard Nixon received a highly controversial pardon from President Gerald Ford. Some charged that the pardon was part of an agreement reached with Ford when Nixon left office; others, including the New York Times, simply called the move unwise and unjust. Ford, who announced the pardon on live television on Sept. 8, 1974, called the Nixon family's situa= tion "an American tragedy in which we all have played a part." He adde= d: "It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I = have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must." Ford, howeve= r, may have also written his own end, politically speaking. Many believe the N= ixon pardon was the reason he lost the 1976 election to Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.

VIETNAM DRAFT DODGERS, 1977

His Oval Office chair was barely warm w= hen President Jimmy Carter fulfilled a controversial campaign promise on his fi= rst day in the White House by issuing a pardon to those who avoided serving in = the Vietnam war by fleeing the U.S. or not registering. Pres= ident Gerald Ford had earlier introduced a conditional amnesty, but Carter, hopin= g to heal the war's wounds, made no conditions. He did, however, exclude many gr= oups of individuals from the pardon: deserters were not eligible, nor were soldi= ers who had received less-than-honorable discharges. Also not included were the civilians who had protested the war.

MARK FELT (a.k.a. DEEP THROAT) & EDWARD MILLER, 1981

These two men became the highest-ranking convicted criminals in the FBI. Felt, who revealed himself in 2005 as the whistleblower known as Deep Throat, and Miller were found guilty in 1978 of breaking into Vietna= m protesters' homes and offices without warrants during the Nixon presidency.= They had been trying to keep the FBI and Nixon informed of activities that they considered to be undertaken by hostile foreign powers and collaborators. Overstepping his own Justice Department, President Ronald Reagan pardoned t= he two men in the midst of their appeals, after three years of prosecution proceedings. Reagan argued that America was generous to the thousands of draft dodgers who were pardoned for refusi= ng to serve their country in Vietnam. "We can be no less generous to two men who acted on high principle to bring an end to the terrorism that was threatening our nation." <= /o:p>

GEORGE STEINBRENNER, = 1989

Indicted on 14 criminal counts on April= 5, 1974, the owner of the New York Yankees plead guilty to obstruction of just= ice and conspiring to make illegal contributions to President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. Steinbrenner, a major Republican donor, allegedly knew the money he was donating was not going through regular election procedures. Not wanting to appear soft on crime, President Ronald Reagan would only par= don Steinbrenner if the Yankees' owner admitted to the crime.

CASPAR WEINBERGER, 19= 92

Former Defense Secretary Weinberger and= six other defendants were criticized for participating in the transfer of U.S. anti-tank missiles to Iran in= what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair. Weinberger was charged with lying to the independent counsel after he resigned in 1987. But the pardon by Presid= ent George H.W. Bush essentially halted the legal proceedings against Weinberger and his fellow defendants, as well as against Bush himself, who could have = been called to testify as a former member of the Reagan administration. Independ= ent council Lawrence Walsh, who had been investigating the affair, disapproved = of the pardon, saying: "The Iran-Contra coverup... has now been completed."

PATTY HEARST, 2001

The granddaughter of publishing titan W= illiam Randolph Hearst made headlines in 1974 when an urban guerilla group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) kidnapped = her from her Berkeley, = Calif., apartment. Two months later the 19-year-old was photographed robbing a San Francisco bank while brandishing= an assault rifle — apparently she had taken up her captors' cause. At tr= ial her defense lawyer focused not only on her abuse and the fact that the kidn= appers forced her to take part in the robbery, but on the pervasive brainwashing by her attackers that caused her to sympathize with them. The defense didn't w= ork and Hearst was convicted of bank robbery on March 20, 1976. She was impriso= ned for almost two years before Jimmy Carter commuted her seven-year sentence a= nd freed her from jail. But it was President Bill Clinton who granted her a fu= ll pardon on the last day of his presidency, January 20, 2001.

MARC RICH, 2001

In 1983, financier Rich was indicted for evading more than $48 million in taxes, and charged with 51 counts of tax fraud, as well as running illegal oil deals with Iran during the 1979-1980 hos= tage crisis. During his last week in office, President Bill Clinton pardoned Rich, who had fled the U.S= . during his prosecution and was residing in = Switzerland. Clinton's eleventh-hour move, along with pardons of his half-brother, Roger, and former business partner Susan McDou= gal, outraged Republicans and Democrats alike. The Rich pardon sparked an invest= igation into whether it was bought by the hefty donations Rich's ex-wife, Denise, h= ad given to the Clintons and the Democrats. In the end, investigators did not = find enough evidence to indict Clin= ton.