Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Clemency Shenanigans
Yesterday, the lawyer for Lindsay Clancy, whose jury was hung in her recent Massachusetts murder trial, announced that he would seek a pardon for her from President Trump.
It's a very strange request. The President (as I explained to the New York Times) just doesn't have the ability to pardon people from state charges. Not that President Trump hasn't tried-- he already granted a "pardon" to Tina Peters, the election-denying court clerk in Colorado.
In the Peters case, though, the Democratic governor of Colorado later gave her an actual, effective pardon. Perhaps that is the pattern that Clancy's lawyer is pursuing. And the whole mess is a sign of the odd times for clemency we are living through at the moment.
