Forum, Sep. 23, 1974

Is the Pardon Unpardonable?

To the Editors:

The Supreme Court was widely praised in the "tapes" case for its holding that no man was above the law. President Ford, with all good intentions and even with personal magnanimity, has dealt this principle a serious blow. What are we now to do about John Mitchell, who may have already suffered as much as Richard Nixon and is still being prosecuted, or with the other underlings who, as far as anyone can tell, really executed orders from above? This effort to heal the wounds of Watergate has inflamed the existing and far more serious wounds in the principle of equality before the law. Even if one decided to achieve some equality by pardoning all of those who are accused of doing the President's bidding, there stand thousands of others accused of criminality. They have also suffered, but they may differ from Richard Nixon primarily in more forthrightly acknowledging their guilt, as do most embezzlers, or in having acted out of conscience, as have many of our draft evaders. Presumably they, too, would be content with being judged by history if they were not prosecuted.

This affront to the sense of justice—and that is essentially what it is—is not, to be sure, fatal to our criminal-justice system. But this action certainly does add to the all too popular view that our criminal law is a mass of hypocrisies. It is interesting to note that California's Governor Ronald Reagan, who applauded the refusal to allow prosecution of Richard Nixon on the ground that "he has suffered as much as any man should," had two days earlier announced his intention to veto a bill lowering the possible penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana from ten years' to six months' imprisonment. Is it any wonder that the poor, the ethnic minorities and the young, who are the real consumers of the criminal law, regard it as stacked in favor of the rich and powerful?

John Kaplan

Professor of Law

Stanford University

Palo Alto, Calif.

President Ford has insulted every law-abiding citizen of this country.

Muriel Swango

Quincy, III.

President Ford, by his unexpected action, has destroyed his own credibility.

In 1960, while I was Governor of California, I had a similar situation, which hurt me all the days of my governorship. I am referring to the case of Caryl Chessman.