Clicking on banner ads keeps JWR alive
Jewish World Review Dec. 31, 2001 / 16 Teves, 5762

Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

In America, punishment should fit the crime

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- CLARENCE AARON has been sentenced to as much time as FBI-agent-turned- Russian-spy Robert Hanssen.

Hanssen is a senior federal law enforcement official turned traitor. He leaked information for money on Russian "moles;" that information may have cost them their lives. But because Hanssen had information to trade, he avoided the death penalty and worked out a deal with federal prosecutors that gave him a life sentence. There is no parole in the federal system. And even if there was, Hanssen should stay behind bars until the day he dies.

Clarence Aaron is a veritable Boy Scout compared to Hanssen. In 1992 at age 23, Aaron, then a student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., stupidly and wrongly set up a huge drug deal between some big-time dealers. As the PBS documentary "Snitch" reported, Aaron received a whole $1,500 for the transaction. It was his bad luck that later, after the drug dealers were caught, they were able to trade his name for leniency. Since Aaron lacked their connections, he had no bodies to offer to prosecutors and went to trial.

According to Aaron's attorney, Gregg Shapiro of Boston, the higher-up drug dealers who testified against him -- men with long criminal histories, some that included crimes of violence -- are now free.

But first-time nonviolent offender Clarence Aaron remains behind bars. He is serving three life sentences. Thanks to excessive federal sentencing laws, he'll rot in prison until the day he dies -- just like Robert Hanssen.

"Only a presidential commutation of sentence can free him," explained Eric E. Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation.

That's bad news, because President George W. Bush has issued no pardons or sentence commutations since he assumed office.

Said U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson Susan Dryden, "That's the president's decision, based on the recommendation of the pardon attorneys. That doesn't mean there won't be anything in the future."

The need for clemency has never been greater. As Sterling is quick to point out, the federal prison population hovered below 25,000 until the 1980s. Today, however, thanks to draconian federal drug laws that too frequently sentence nonviolent first offenders to years more than their crimes warrant, the federal prison population exceeds 158,000.

As a 7th Circuit Court of Appeal decision noted, federal drug laws that were designed to be tough on drug kingpins have ended up over-punishing small fish: "Bold dealers may turn on their former comrades. . . . Timorous dealers may provide information about their sources and customers. Drones of the organization -- the runners, mules, drivers and lookouts -- have nothing comparable to offer. . . . Whatever tales they have to tell, their bosses have related. . . . The more serious the defendant's crimes, the lower the sentence -- because the greater his wrongs, the more information and assistance he has to offer to a prosecutor."

I'll add that the sentencing laws have fallen disproportionately on African Americans. Like Aaron.

Bush can only gain politically by granting commutations to deserving inmates. After all, 2001 began with outgoing-president Bill Clinton's shameful pardon of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich, who was hiding in Switzerland following a 51-count, 1983 indictment for tax evasion, racketeering and illegal trading with Iran. (Usually, to qualify for clemency, inmates are supposed to regret their crimes, as Aaron does. Rich bucked the trend by winning a pardon while unrepentant and on the lam.)

Clinton tried to hide the Rich pardon, as well as pardons for convicted politicians, among 140 last-minute pardons. He added respectability to his choices by throwing in a handful of sentence commutations for first-time nonviolent drug offenders serving obscenely long sentences.

As Clinton rallies to put a kind spin on his jaded legacy, Bush easily could outclass his predecessor, just by setting up a special panel to free federal prisoners whose punishment far exceeds their crime. The panel could look at cases that have long haunted federal judges. It could target cases in which low-level offenders such as Aaron received sentences much longer than those meted out to drug kingpins.

Doing so would demonstrate Dubya's compassion and his commitment to serve all Americans, not just the rich and well-connected. It's the right thing to do. It's the just thing to do. It's the humane thing to do. It's the politic thing to do.

Alexander Hamilton referred to the presidential pardon power as a "mitigation of the rigor of the law." Government acts too big when it puts low- level, first-time nonviolent offenders away for life -- handing the same sentence to Clarence Aaron as to Robert Hanssen, a traitor with blood on his hands. Bush has the key to free Aaron from a sentence that never should have been handed down. He should use it.


Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here.


Up


12/28/01: What I'd like to see in 2002
12/24/01: Don't heckle ink monopolists
12/21/01: Mumia finds safety in numbers
12/19/01 The self-help PBS shopping network
12/17/01 Caught on tape
12/14/01 Know when to hold 'em
12/10/01 Old friends
12/06/01 I read the news today, oh boy
12/03/01 It's not cricket
11/28/01 Admissions and omissions
11/26/01 Guns and abayas
11/21/01 Depraved minds think alike
11/19/01 Guilty, a la carte
11/14/01 Interpreting the entrails of Election 2000
11/12/01 Life and liberty
11/09/01 Safety is as safety does
11/07/01 More hot air on global warming
11/05/01 Bumped Pakistani's molehill
11/01/01 Freedom snuffed out
10/29/01 Give war a chance
10/26/01 Airline bill needs liftoff
10/22/01 The Riordan Principle
10/19/01 Before America gets tired of the war on terrorism
10/17/01 Patriot games
10/15/01 I was a 'McCainiac,' and I have seen the light
10/12/01 University of Censorship's fall semester
10/11/01 Poor little rich boy, Osama
10/07/01 Don't feed Israel to the beast
10/05/01: bin Laden is not our Frankenstein monster
10/04/01: Where no man has gone before
09/26/01: Who's bloodthirsty?
09/26/01: What's to understand?
09/20/01: Barbara Lee's line in the sand
09/14/01: You gotta love this country
09/13/01: ENTER TERROR
09/11/01: You can't clone ethics
09/06/01: NOW's goal: equal rights for women without equal responsibility
08/30/01: What's love got to do with it?
08/24/01: A clean, well-lighted place for junkies
08/20/01: Bush should stand up for justice
08/08/01: Don't give Peace (Dept). a chance
08/03/01: Lose a kid, pass a law
08/01/01: Welcome to France, killers
07/30/01: Why it's easy being green (in Europe)
07/26/01: If disabled means expendable
07/23/01: Condit should not resign
07/18/01: Feinstein should learn her limit
07/16/01: A drought of common sense
07/13/01: The catalog has no clothes
07/05/01: It's Bush against the planet
07/03/01: The man who would be guv
06/29/01: Wheeled, wired and free
06/27/01: O, fearful new world
06/25/01: End HMO horrors
06/21/01: Either they're dishonest or clueless
06/18/01: Freedom is a puff of smoke
06/15/01: In praise of going heavy: Yes, you can take it all
06/13/01: McVeigh: 'Unbowed' maybe, but dead for sure
06/11/01: Gumby strikes back
06/08/01: Los Angeles' last white mayor?
06/07/01: Kids will be kids, media will be media
06/04/01: Draw a line in the sand
05/30/01: Just don't call him a moderate
05/29/01: Operation: Beat up on civil rights
05/24/01: Of puppies, kittens and huge credit-card debts
05/22/01: Bush needs an energy tinkerbell
05/18/01: Divided we stand, united they fall
05/16/01: Big Bench backs might over right
05/15/01: Close SUV loophole
05/11/01: Kill the test, welcome failure
05/09/01: DA mayor's disappointing legacy
05/07/01: If it ain't broken ...
05/03/01: They shoot civilians, don't they?
04/30/01: Executions are not for prime time
04/12/01: White House and the green myth
04/10/01: The perjurer as celeb
04/04/01: Bush bashers don't know squat
04/02/01: Drugging our oldsters
03/30/01: Robert Lee Massie exercises his death wish
03/28/01: Cheney's nuclear reactor
03/26/01: Where California and Mexico meet
03/16/01: Boy's sentence was no accident
03/14/01: Soft money, hard reform
03/12/01: Banks, big credit lines and consumer bankruptcy
03/09/01: Free speech dies in Berkeley
03/02/01: When rats have rights
02/28/01: Move a frog, go to jail?
02/26/01: They knew they'd get away with it
02/20/01: How Dems define tax fairness
02/16/01: The jackpot casino Carmel tribe?
02/14/01: You can fight school success
02/12/01: Hannibal -- with guts this time
02/08/01: A family of jailbirds
02/05/01: Reality's most demeaning TV moments
02/01/01: Justice for the non-Rich
01/26/01: Hail to the chiefs of D.C. opinion
01/24/01: A day of mud and monuments
01/22/01: Diversity, division, de-lovely D.C.
01/19/01: Parties agree: Give back the money
01/17/01: Get tough with the oil companies, or forget pumping more Alaskan crude
01/15/01: Mineta better pray that no attending confirmation senator has ever driven to San Jose during rush hour
01/12/01: Europeans should look in the mirror
01/10/01: Dems' reasons for dissin' Dubya's picks
01/08/01: Jerry, curb your guru
01/03/01: A foe of Hitler and friend of Keating
12/28/00: Nice people think nice thoughts
12/26/00: The Clinton years: Epilogue
12/21/00: 'Tis the season to free nonviolent drug offenders 12/18/00: A golden opportunity is squandered
12/15/00: You can take the 24 years, good son
12/13/00: Court of law vs. court of public opinion
12/08/00: A salvo in the war on the war on drugs
12/06/00: Don't cry, Butterfly: Big trees make great decks
12/04/00: Florida: Don't do as Romans did
11/30/00: Special City's hotel parking ticket
11/27/00: No means yes, yes means more than yes
11/22/00: The bench, the ballot and fairness
11/20/00: Mendocino, how green is your ballot?

© 2000, Creators Syndicate