Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Pardon for MacDonald

Friday, Oct. 1, 1999 | 9 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is executive editor of the Las Vegas Sun

MR. PRESIDENT:

Welcome back for another visit to Nevada. You have been good to the Silver State and haven't forgotten our support when seeking office. Although not all Nevadans agree with your every move, we do know that our economy has never been better. Your policies during the past seven years have resulted in a financial stability that has been beneficial both nationally and internationally. At the same time, your programs have resulted in safer streets and better health care for both the young and old.

During your time in office the road has been politically rocky, but you continue to successfully work to improve the quality of life for all Americans. Last month that flap you created by offering pardons to 16 FALN members really raised a ruckus. The Senate voted 95-2 condemning the pardons and the House wasn't much kinder when voting 311-41 in their rebuke of your actions. A few more votes like this and you may surpass the number of attacks several members of Congress made on my favorite president, Harry S. Truman.

I had some doubts about the wisdom of these pardons but, unlike Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., never questioned your power to grant clemency. Your refusal to give Congress any documents you used to justify the pardons is right on target. Your power to grant pardons doesn't include nor need any advice or consent from either the Senate or House. Your exercise of constitutional powers drives Burton up a wall.

Mimi Hall, writing in USA Today, tells us, "Since taking office in 1993, Clinton has been stingy with clemency. Before offering to commute the sentences of the FALN members -- the Spanish acronym for the Armed Forces of National Liberation -- Clinton had granted only three of 3,042 requests for commuted sentences."

In the New York Times, David Johnston writes, "But the offer appears to be far from routine for Mr. Clinton. He has granted fewer clemency petitions -- including commutations of prison sentences or pardons for past crimes -- than either of his Republican predecessors, Presidents George Bush and Ronald Reagan."

Maybe, Mr. President, now that you have broken the ice, it's time to look at some other cases that have been waiting for action. One of the first should be the case of Peter MacDonald, a Navajo leader who has been in prison for seven years. I first came to know this former U.S. Marine Navajo Code Talker of World War II when working with several Indian tribes in the Southwest during 1967. He was struggling to bring economic development and progress to his people at that time. He had a tough job and government agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs only added to his problems. Today, his deteriorating health has resulted in his confinement at a federal prison medical center in Texas.

Mr. President, I know that Peter's file has several letters recommending a pardon. Among the most important is the pardon he has received from the Navajo nation and the people who want him back home. They pardoned him and asked for his release more than four years ago.

Of all the state and national political leaders who have asked for Peter's release, the most impressive is the request of my good friend, the late Sen. Barry Goldwater. Author Jerry Kammar, in his "The Second Long Walk" about the Navajo-Hopi land dispute, writes about how MacDonald "fell from Republican grace" and became an "enemy of Barry Goldwater." That was in 1972 and 24 years later, in 1996, Goldwater wrote you asking for "your kindness and good judgment to grant this man a pardon so he can return to his tribe, his sacred lands and mountains." In that same letter Goldwater wrote that MacDonald "made a mistake, but he has paid for this mistake. The important thing is that he has paid his debt to society." Yes, that letter was written more than three years ago.

Mr. President, upon returning to the White House, I, and the Navajos, would appreciate your calling for the file and pardon requests of Peter MacDonald. Review it and then do what's right. It's time for him to return home where he is loved and belongs.