It is a Thanksgiving tradition for the president to pardon a turkey. This year, CNN reports, it was a Minnesota bird named Popcorn. But is executive clemency limited to avians? This post briefly explores the available data. Decline in federal clemency. Though he pardoned a turkey, President Obama has not pardoned many people. The New York Times observed here that “Obama’s use of the pardon power remains historically low. In four and a half years, he has received almost 10,000 applications for clemency and has granted just 39 pardons and one sentence commutation.” The graph below shows how President Obama compares to other two-term presidents in terms of pardons and commutations: Obviously, there’s a modern trend towards more limited use of executive clemency that extends beyond the current president. I speculate that the increased media scrutiny given to pardons and commutations has made presidents reluctant to exercise clemency. Whether that’s a good thing (because it promotes consistency in the criminal justice system and minimizes the capricious and perhaps political amelioration of sentences) or a bad thing (because it mercilessly fails to recognize those who have truly changed their ways) is a question beyond the scope of this post. North Carolina data. The same trend of more limited use of the clemency power may be present in North Carolina as well, though the effect of four terms of Governor Hunt is so strong that it is a bit hard to tell. I compiled data from the Governor’s Clemency Office into this chart: [...]
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