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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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