Famous Presidential Pardons
The first ever presidential pardon came in the wake of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, when distillers in Pennsylvania burned the home of a local tax collector during their protests against federal taxation of their spirits. President George Washington sent in 13,000 militiamen to quell the rebellion, leading to the arrest and conviction of 20 distillers. Desperate to avoid further grievances on the matter, Washington pardoned two men sentenced to death by hanging.
Get Brigham Young!
Brigham Young proved to be another slippery case, when in 1857, President James Buchanan dispatched an army expedition to retake Utah from the Later-day Saints, over fears that Young was turning the territory into a religious theocracy. After a yearlong standoff in what became known as the Utah War, Buchanan pardoned Young and his followers as part of a peace compromise with the United States.
Get the Socialist!
Another controversial pardon was Socialist labor activist and politician Eugene Debs, whose 1918 arrest under the Espionage Act landed him a 10-year prison sentence for questioning in a speech American involvement in the First World War. Spending the remainder of the war behind bars, in 1921, President Warren G. Harding commuted Debs’ sentence to time served, although he refused to reinstate citizenship for the disgraced Socialist.
Get the Labor Leader!
Next on the infamous pardon list was famed labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, the powerful president of the Teamsters union. After Hoffa secured a national trucker’s contract in 1964, federal investigations into his corrupt practices landed him an 13-year sentence for jury tampering, attempted bribery of a grand juror, mail fraud and improper use of Teamster dues. Entering prison in 1967, President Richard M. Nixon commuted Hoffa’s sentence in 1971, which was eventually overshadowed by his 1974 disappearance from a Detroit restaurant parking lot—the suspected target of a mob hit.
Get the President!
After Nixon’s 1971 pardon of Hoffa, he himself faced impeachment and possible jail time thanks to his direct participation and attempted coverup in the Watergate scandal of 1972, until his forced resignation in August of 1974. He was granted a full pardon by incoming President Gerald Ford, just weeks after Nixon’s resignation—an event seen by many as a necessary evil to guide a nation forward out of an era of presidential scandal and abuse of power.
Get the Radicalized Rich Girl!
Last on the list is Patty Hearst, the 19-year-old granddaughter of famed newspaper mogul William Randolph Heart, who was kidnapped and held for ransom by a radical guerrilla group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. Soon radicalized in captivity, Hearst stunned the world when photographs confirmed her participation in a string of armed bank robberies in the San Francisco Bay area. Following her arrest in 1975, famed defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey unsuccessfully pleaded Stockholm Syndrome in her defense, leading to a seven-year prison sentence, which President Jimmy Carter felt too extreme. He commuted her sentence after only 22 months served, making famous presidential pardons, a mixed bag of compassion and public outrage.