A ProPublica report found that white criminals seeking presidential pardons over the past decade have been nearly four times as likely to succeed as minorities:
An African American woman from Little Rock, fined $3,000 for underreporting her income in 1989, was denied a pardon; a white woman from the same city who faked multiple tax returns to collect more than $25,000 in refunds got one. A black, first-time drug offender — a Vietnam veteran who got probation in South Carolina for possessing 1.1 grams of crack — was turned down. A white, fourth-time drug offender who did prison time for selling 1,050 grams of methamphetamine was pardoned.
Scott Horton shakes his head:
The presidential-pardon system should exist to right errors in the justice system, to set free those who have been wrongfully prosecuted and convicted, and to mitigate the sentences of those who have been treated with undue harshness. It should be an escape valve for the system’s misfires. … What matters instead, it turns out, is having a friend who has a friend on the president’s staff, having made campaign contributions to the right people, or commanding the resources to navigate the application process.
The Dish 