Would You Pardon Them?

Friends and Family
Henry Cisneros, the former HUD Secretary, was convicted of lying to the FBI about payments to a mistress. His mistress, Linda Medlar Jones, was pardoned as well; neither application went through Justice.

Florida attorney Arnold Prosperi, 52, faced three years in prison for tax fraud. Prosperi managed Clinton's 1967 campaign for student-council president at Georgetown University. Clinton commuted his sentence to house arrest.

Richard Riley Jr., was sentenced in 1992 to house arrest and probation on cocaine and marijuana charges. His father Richard Riley was Clinton's Education Secretary.

Roger Clinton, the President's brother, served one year on cocaine charges.

Former CIA Director John Deutch just a day before the pardon agreed to plead guilty to improperly storing classified materials on his home computer.

More Pardon Patterns
Hasidimgate
Hillary Clinton was tarnished by the commutations her husband gave to four Hasidic Jewish men from New Square, N.Y. The quartet was convicted of pocketing federal funds intended for their fictitious community center. In her Senate campaign, Hillary won almost every vote in New Square; shortly after the election, community leaders met with Bill Clinton at the White House. Over Justice's objections, he commuted the sentences. Hillary denies a quid pro quo, but her assurances haven't kept her N.Y. poll numbers from slipping.

The Whitewater Gang
Webb Hubbell got nothing. Jim Guy Tucker went away empty-handed. But Susan McDougal and three other Whitewater players received pardons. Clinton was generous to Arkansans in general--27 made his pardon list. But he felt special sympathy for those pursued by Ken Starr, and he is still griping that none of the accusations surrounding the land deal went anywhere. McDougal, Christopher Wade, Robert Palmer and Clinton's former gubernatorial aide Stephen Smith were all convicted on minor charges as Starr pushed them to implicate their former boss. Clinton pardoned them.

The Espy Awards
Six pardons and one commutation went to men convicted by independent counsel Donald Smaltz during his unsuccessful investigation of Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Three of them--Alvarez Ferrouillet, John Hemmingson and James Lake--were convicted of laundering campaign loans to Espy's brother Henry. Lake, a G.O.P. lobbyist, once worked for former President Bush. The petitions had crucial support from F.O.B. Terry McAuliffe.

Drug Free
Seventeen of Clinton's commutations did not have Washington heavyweights lobbying for them. Instead, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a leading sentencing reform organization, pushed Clinton to help correct what it called sentences run amuck. The group prepared applications for minor offenders like Cory Stringfellow, sentenced to long prison terms--often while their codefendants got lighter terms for testifying against them. Amid the furor over Clinton's factory of scandalous pardons, these justifiable acts of mercy have been overlooked. Too bad, Bill.