Clemency Often Used in the Past to Remedy Injustice
In a recent arti­cle in the Chicago Tribune, law Professor Daniel Kobil exam­ined his­tor­i­cal uses of the pow­er of clemency:

Comprehensive remis­sions of pun­ish­ment to rem­e­dy sys­temic flaws are… some­times required. It is not unusu­al for courts to make con­sti­tu­tion­al rul­ings that have the effect of inval­i­dat­ing con­vic­tions across the board. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1972 deci­sion in Furman vs. Georgia, effec­tive­ly inval­i­dat­ed every death sen­tence then pend­ing nation­wide. And oth­er exec­u­tives have found it nec­es­sary to use clemen­cy to cor­rect prob­lems com­mon to an entire class. Thomas Jefferson, short­ly after becom­ing pres­i­dent, dis­charged every per­son being pun­ished under the Alien and Sedition Act, which he con­sid­ered an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al law. In a let­ter to Abigail Adams, he explained that he did this ​“in every instance, with­out ask­ing what the offend­ers had done, or against whom they had offend­ed, but whether the pains they were suf­fer­ing were inflict­ed under the [invalid] law.” President Andrew Johnson fol­low­ing the Civil War, and Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter after the Vietnam con­flict, grant­ed amnesty to broad class­es of indi­vid­u­als who had bro­ken wartime laws. (Chicago Tribune, December 4, 2002)

In Illinois, Governor George Ryan is expect­ed to act on the clemen­cy requests from every death row inmate before he leaves office in January. See, also Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment.

Clemency Recommendations Submitted to Kentucky, Oklahoma Governors
Nine Kentucky law­mak­ers have called on Governor Paul Patton to com­mute the death sen­tence of Kevin Stanford, a juve­nile offend­er on Kentucky’s death row. The request not­ed that a ​“nation­al and inter­na­tion­al con­sen­sus against exe­cut­ing juve­nile offend­ers” has devel­oped. Among those law­mak­ers who signed the let­ter was Kentucky House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo, who said that a poll of Kentuckians showed that res­i­dents of the state sup­port a sen­tence oth­er than death for juve­nile offend­ers. (Courier-Journal, November 13, 2002).

In Oklahoma, the state Pardon and Parole Board unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy for Earnest Marvin Carter, whose sched­uled exe­cu­tion date is December 17, 2002. By a vote of 4 – 0, the mem­bers of the board rec­om­mend­ed that Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating com­mute Carter’s sen­tence, with three of the four mem­bers rec­om­mend­ing life with­out parole. Of the three pre­vi­ous rec­om­men­da­tions for clemen­cy in death cas­es sent to Keating by the Board since 1995, he has grant­ed only one. Carter’s defense attor­neys argue that their client is deserv­ing of the com­mu­ta­tion because he was not guilty of the crime beyond a moral cer­tain­ty. (Associated Press, November 12, 2002). See also, Juvenile Death Penalty

Illinois Clemency Hearings Spark Editorials
Two recent edi­to­ri­als sparked by the on-going clemen­cy hear­ings in Illinois high­light the issues faced by the state’s review board and Governor George Ryan. The Christian Science Monitor observed:

The hear­ings, replay­ing gris­ly mur­ders, have set loose a flood of emo­tion. But that can’t be allowed to obscure the basic pur­pose: deter­min­ing whether con­vic­tions and sub­se­quent death sen­tences result­ed from fair tri­als or taint­ed ones.
…
In many cas­es, there’s no ques­tion the con­victs did what they were accused of. The ques­tion is whether their tri­als were so flawed that their sen­tences should be com­mut­ed.
…
In any event, the process in Illinois illus­trates the mul­ti­tude of human fail­ings that can work their way into cap­i­tal tri­als, rais­ing the ter­ri­ble prospect of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent. That prospect, togeth­er with deep moral con­cerns about state-sanc­tioned killing, under­scores the need to put the death penal­ty per­ma­nent­ly back on the shelf of his­to­ry. (Christian Science Monitor, October 18, 2002)

The Courier & Press of Indiana noted:

Indiana and oth­er death penal­ty states should pay close atten­tion to what is hap­pen­ing in Illinois.
…
[A]fter an exam­i­na­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Indiana, we arrived at the con­clu­sion that the death penal­ty in Indiana should be abol­ished. We based that on its fail­ure to serve as a deter­rent, on the poten­tial for irre­versible mis­takes (as have been dis­cov­ered in Illinois), the expense, the delay and the pain it caus­es to fam­i­lies. (Courier & Press, October 20, 2002).

See also, Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment.

Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles Commutes Sentence to Life
Alexander Williams was grant­ed clemen­cy by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on February 25. A spokes­woman for the Board stat­ed that Williams’s men­tal ill­ness, his sta­tus as a juve­nile offend­er, and his his­to­ry of abuse as a child were fac­tors lead­ing to the Board’s deci­sion to com­mute his death sen­tence to life with­out parole. The Board received many pleas for clemen­cy, includ­ing those from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the European Union, the American Bar Association, and for­mer First Lady Rosalynn Carter. (New York Times, 2/​26/​02) This was the sec­ond death penal­ty clemen­cy grant­ed this year and the 48th since 1976. 

North Carolina Governor Commutes Alston’s Sentence Hours before Charlie Alston was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in North Carolina, Governor Mike Easley com­mut­ed Alston’s sen­tence to life with­out parole. Although Easley did not give a spe­cif­ic rea­son for the reprieve, he stat­ed, ​“After long and care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion of all the facts and cir­cum­stances of this case in its entire­ty, I con­clude that the appro­pri­ate sen­tence for the defen­dant is life in prison with­out parole.” Alston has always main­tained his inno­cence, stat­ing that DNA evi­dence from the scene would prove his inno­cence. That evi­dence, how­ev­er, was lost by the state. (News and Observer, 1/​10/​02)
Alston’s com­mu­ta­tion marks the 2nd time Easley has grant­ed clemen­cy, and the 5th time a North Carolina gov­er­nor has done so since 1976. During that same time, 47 death row inmates nation­al­ly have had their sen­tences com­mut­ed for human­i­tar­i­an rea­sons.
For more infor­ma­tion on the Alston case, vis­it the Coalition of Criminal Justice Organizations’ Press Release.

Clemency Was Not Always So Rare in North Carolina
Prior to North Carolina Governor Easley’s deci­sion to grant clemen­cy to Robert Bacon, Jr., only three North Carolina death row inmates in near­ly a quar­ter of a cen­tu­ry had their sen­tences reduced to life in prison by the state’s gov­er­nor. The use of clemen­cy was not always so uncom­mon. A recent arti­cle by Gene R. Nichol, Dean at the University of North Carolina School of Law, not­ed that between 1909 and 1930, 46 per­cent of those receiv­ing the death penal­ty in North Carolina had their sen­tences com­mut­ed to life. From 1909 to 1970, 358 pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed and 236 (40 per­cent) had their sen­tences lim­it­ed. High rates of clemen­cy (1:1) were main­tained from the mid-50s to 1970, even though juries had been giv­en more dis­cre­tion to reject the harsh­est sanc­tion. (News and Observer, op-ed, 10/​10/​01)