Greenspun was convicted but served no time in jail. He was pardoned by John F. Kennedy in 1961.  Schwimmer was convicted but served no jail time. He was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2000. Winters was convicted an served 18 months in federal prison. He was pardon on George W. Bush as part of Bush’s last day of pardons on January 1, 2009. Winters’ pardon was the first pardon of a deceased person since Henry Ossain Flipper by Clinton. The whole discussion of the posthumous pardon is obviously not much of discussion anymore.

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Once in prison, she worked with many young people to try to help them become active members of society. In fact, her work has been so influential she is considered by some to be an authority on the subject of re-integration from detention for women. Now that she is not in custody she has continued to worked with young women to help them re-enter society and have a positive impact on society.

Clinton commuted her sentence on November 21, 2000.

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We have an update regarding this matter. The press release follows:

Former Lee County Commissioner’s 1997 Fraud Conviction Vacated
For Immediate Release
February 14, 2011
Coral Gables, FL – The 1997 conviction of former Lee County Commissioner Vicki Lukis was vacated in its entirety today by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Judge John E. Steele found that the trial court had acted without legal authority in Lukis’ prosecution under the so-called “honest services fraud” statute.
“This has been a long and painful journey, and I am relieved to finally restore honor and dignity to my good name, to my family and to my friends who always stood with me,” Lukis said.
The original prosecutor joined Lukis in seeking a writ of error coram nobis, an extremely rare legal proceeding which completely nullified Lukis’ conviction and completely clears her record of the conviction.
“Mrs. Lukis has been completely acquitted of all charges that she accepted monetary or other benefits for decisions she made in her official capacity as a county commissioner,” said Thomas Green, her defense attorney.
The U. S. Supreme Court recently ruled in an unrelated case that honest services fraud applies only in cases where bribery or kickbacks are involved, confirming Lukis’ long-argued interpretation. That ruling, in turn, prompted the District Court in Fort Myers to review Lukis’ case, and to conclude that her actions were not a crime under the law and that she was wrongfully accused and convicted for a non-existent crime.
Lukis, then Vicki Lopez Wolfe, was elected to the Lee County Commission in November 1990. During her tenure, she dated Sylvester Lukis, a prominent lobbyist based in Washington, DC, who represented clients before the county board. The commissioner resigned from office in January 1993, and the two wed in August 1994. In March 1995, Vicki and Sylvester Lukis each was charged with one count of honest services mail fraud, one count of bribery and eight counts of using a facility in interstate commerce to commit bribery.
Following a two-week trial in April 1997, jurors cleared Sylvester Lukis of all counts and found Vicki Lukis not guilty of all counts except one: honest services mail fraud. In post-trial interviews, several jurors stated their belief that Vicki Lukis had lied about her relationship with Sylvester Lukis, as the prosecution had argued. Sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, the ex-commissioner served more than 15 months before then-President Clinton commuted her sentence in November 2000.
“Mrs. Lukis’ conviction and her subsequent time in federal prison is the most unfortunate and unfair outcome I have ever experienced in my 44 years of criminal defense work throughout the United States,” said Green, of the Sidley Austin law firm. “Mrs. Lukis was wrongly accused of honest services fraud because she attempted to keep private her personal relationship with a man who later became her husband, but her denials had nothing to do with her official duties. They only had to do with her desire to keep the press away from her personal life.”
Following her release from prison in Central Florida, Lukis returned to her home in Coral Gables and dedicated herself to criminal justice reform. She serves as the vice chairman of the Florida Department of Corrections’ Reentry Advisory Council and is a board member of Florida’s Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE). She also served as the chairman of then-Governor Jeb Bush’s Ex-Offender Task Force and is the former executive director of Miami-based Girls Advocacy Project (GAP), Inc.
“I am very pleased with the court’s decision today and feel totally vindicated,” Lukis said. “I am grateful to the government for joining me in seeking this deserved relief. It has been a long and winding road to justice, but one that provided the catalyst for the important reform work in which I am engaged.
“It is my fervent hope that the renewed interest in my criminal case because of today’s decision will result in greater attention to the important reform efforts for which I and so many other dedicated volunteers advocate,” Lukis added.
In December 2004, Governor Bush and the Florida Cabinet restored Lukis’ civil rights. Since then, she has emerged as a well-respected authority regarding criminal and juvenile justice issues, with a focus on enhancing public safety and reducing corrections costs. Her expertise includes prisoner reentry and the needs of girls in the juvenile justice system. Lukis consults with local, state and national government officials, policymakers and stakeholders concerned about prisoner rights.

Most notable was a fraud conviction for his involvement in a deal for a piece of land known as the Big Boquillas ranch. Before the Boquillas transaction, the Navajo and the Hopi were disputing a piece of land in Arizona. Boquillas was huge. If MacDonald purchased Boquillas for the Navajo, he wouldn’t have to worry if he lost the fight with the Hopi over the disputed lands. The argument justified the transaction.

The dispute is how he purchased the lands. At 9:50 a.m. on July 15, 1989, Tom Tracy and Bud Brown bought Big Boquillas for $26.2 million. At 9:55 a.m., on the same day, MacDonald bought the same land from Tracy and Brown for $33.4 million.

Later that year, MacDonald, who made $55k a year, was seen driving a new beamer.

At MacDonald’s trial in federal court, Brown testified that MacDonald was in on the deal. MacDonald was accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks. MacDonald was convicted.

MacDonald was convicted in tribal court too. He was given a pardon under Navajo law under a theory of hozhonji, which means the Beauty Way; to forgive.

Clinton pardoned many folks on his last day in office–that day in American history is notable on its own. At the urging of U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, MacDonald was on Clinton’s last day list.

Peter MacDonald - Chairman of the Navajo 1970, 1974, 1978, 1986

Rich fled to Switzerland. Subsequent to his flight, the United States Attorneys office stopped prosecuting tax cases based on a RICO theory and instead pursued the claims through civil remedies. Rich’s ex-wife made contributions to Bill Clinton’s presidential library. Rich made substantial contributions to Israeli charities.

Many pundits criticized Clinton saying this was a pardon for pay. Clinton responded that he consulted with tax professors Martin Ginsburg of Georgetown University Law Center and Bernard Wolfman of the Harvard Law School and concluded that Rich did not have a criminal intent in his actions (i.e. no mens rea).

The irony is that Rich’s lawyer was I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. We might have to give Scooter his own site. Guess the squeaky wheel does get the grease?

Marc Rich

He had a wonderful relationship with his commanding officer Nicholas M. Nolan. Nolan allowed Flipper to dine with the other officers and took a stand for Flipper that he be treated the same as all of the other officers.

After Nolan was reassigned, William Rufus Shafter was assigned to be Flipper’s commanding officer. While no direct proof exists, it is believed that Shafter set up Flipper for an embezzlement charge. While Flipper beat the rap at trial, he lost on the lesser charge of conduct unbecoming an officer. He was thrown out of the army because of this conviction. He appealed to then President Chester A. Arthur to reinstate his commission on the grounds that his sentence was too harsh for his conviction and that similarly situated white officers were not discharged from the army for the same conviction. Arthur denied Flipper’s request for a pardon.

In the 1970s, prominent lawyers in the United States decided that Flipper deserved to be pardon for this nonsense and that our nation should undo the past wrongs of clear racism and bigotry. As lawyers do, they lobbied and applied for a pardon.

Eventually, Clinton granted Flipper a full pardon on all the charges. Due to Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79 (1915), and the holding that a pardon is not a pardon unless the pardonee accepts the pardon, people argue that the Flipper is invalid because he had been dead for 59 years when Clinton pardoned him in 1999. No group to this point has challenged the pardon, and since the federal constitution gives the President of the United States the authority to pardon, it would seem like Clinton overruled Burdick in Flipper’s case. Seems like Clinton got one right. Time will tell.

Henry Flipper, first African American graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

President Carter commuted her sentence and she was released from prison on February 1, 1979 after serving approximately 22 months in jail. On January 20, 2001, on his last day in office President Clinton granted Hearst a full pardon.

Patty Hearst - pardon me!

From the 1960s through 1980 FALN claimed responsibility for many bombings in the United States to fight for independence. 16 members of FALN were convicted of various federal crimes, including sedition, with sentences far in excess of those sentences of other individuals convicted of similar of crimes.

In 1999, President Clinton, commuted the sentences of the 16 members of FALN over the objection of the United States Attorney, Congress, Senate, and Federal Bureau of Investigations. None of those commuted had ever been convicted of any acts where people were injured; all 16 had served at least 19 years in jail before their commutation.

Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña