The New
York Times reported, in Justice Dept. Starts Quest for Inmates to Be Freed, US Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole’s
recent request for clemency candidates; while addressing the New York State Bar Association, Cole
said, “This is where you can help.”
“Help
indeed,” noted Dan Linn, Executive Director of the
Illinois chapter of NORML and part of Publius and The Cannabis Papers,
“as there’s been a lot of harm.”
The
article quotes Attorney
General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his recent statement that the Prison system
accounted for 30 percent of the Justice Department’s budget, straining law
enforcement resources; it also notes: “Prison officials will spread the word
among inmates that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders might be eligible to
apply for clemency.”
Clemency is mercy or lenience toward an offense; pardon is forgiving
an offense.
“Clemency
is great, though it’s not a pardon,” remarked Linn, “nor is it restorative
justice; Illinois has a restorative justice clause in our Bill of Rights (Section
11). It’s the idea that with a criminal sentence there is also rehabilitation;
the federal equivalent available to President Obama is a constitutional
pardon.”
Section
11 of Illinois’ Bill of Rights, Limitation of Penalties After Conviction
(Restorative Justice), states: All penalties shall be determined both according
to the seriousness of the offense and with the objective of restoring the
offender to useful citizenship.
Linn
continued: “There’s been a lot of
harm, so something significant needs to be said in order to heal, something
symbolic. A constitutional pardon, as a 2nd Emancipation Proclamation,
might work. The first freed slaves and noted a wrong; a second would free
citizens and note a wrong: the mass incarceration and miscarriage of justice we
call the drug war.”
“The idea of a healing pardon is in essay 74 of The Federalist
Papers,” Linn closed, “as the founders thought the pardon could be used to ‘restore
tranquility’ – you know, to heal a nation.”
The Cannabis Papers: A citizen’s guide to cannabinoids
(2011) is available at online retailers and for free by download.
