WASHINGTON — The federal clemency system is approaching gridlock as a surge in applications for pardons and commutations has resulted in the largest and most persistent backlog of cases in recent history, according to federal data obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
As of Oct. 1, more than 3,000 petitions for clemency filed by federal prisoners were pending with the Office of the Pardon Attorney, Justice Department statistics show. That compares with an average of 500 to 1,000 in the five decades since World War II.
The number of petitions soared during the final years of the Clinton administration and has remained high under President Bush, creating a buildup of pending applications that has averaged more than 2,000 a year since 2001.
The backlog has grown sharply in recent months. After acting on several hundred petitions each year since 2001, Bush closed only 18 cases in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30. The last action Bush took was to commute the 30-month prison term of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in July.
The logjam has enormous emotional and practical consequences for inmates and their supporters, who often must wait years to get a decision. Critics of the federal justice system see clemency as an important safety valve at a time when parole is no longer available for federal inmates and when many prisoners have been sentenced under stiff mandatory minimum sentencing laws enacted by Congress in the 1980s.
There is a growing debate about the impact and fairness of those laws, including measures that have punished African Americans disproportionately for possessing or distributing crack cocaine. Indeed, legal experts say the surge in petitions is fueled in part by people who have spent a decade or more in prison after being sentenced under tough federal drug laws.
Critics say the lack of action on clemency applications reflects an abandonment by Bush of the discretion he holds under the Constitution to commute sentences. Bush has granted 113 pardons and commuted four sentences since taking office. That is the lowest number of any president since World War II, except for President George H.W. Bush, who granted 74 pardons and three commutations in his one term.
The critics also said the backlog raises questions about whether the Justice Department is up to the task of assessing petitions in an orderly and fair way.
