Knowing Who = Knowing Why

A National Law Journal piece yesterday describes how the Obama administration is refusing to unveil the names of over 9,200 pardon and commutation applicants who got a big, fat “no” when they requested clemency from President George W. Bush.

The argument against releasing the names: pardon applicants don’t want the general public to know they have a criminal record. But for pardon and commutation applicants, the cat is already out of the bag. Anyone can find out about a person’s recent (or not so recent) stint at Leavenworth with a five-second search at the Bureau of Prisons’ website.

The argument for releasing the names: an open, transparent government, something Team Obama claims it wants. The Office of the Pardon Attorney, which handles clemency requests, will already tell anyone who asks if a specific person has been granted or denied clemency, they just won’t hand over the entire list of names of those who’ve been shot down over the years.

Which begs a question: Why not? What has the Office of the Pardon Attorney got to hide? 

Forking over the names of those who are denied clemency is just as valuable as revealing who was lucky enough to get it. What if the majority of people who were denied clemency were Black? Or Hispanic? What if deserving people were denied clemency, while less deserving people got it? What if politically unconnected people fill the ranks of the denied, while the list of clemency recipients is populated with the president’s friends? What if the Office of the Pardon Attorney's denials show that it isn’t doing a thorough enough job with cases, or that it's indiscriminately denying everyone? Releasing the names of those who’ve been denied second chances could shed light on whether the system is actually working or fair.

The public deserves to know who isn’t getting the gift of presidential forgiveness and what that says about why other people are.

-- Stowe