Obama Pardons 8 People

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Friday pardoned eight people convicted of crimes ranging from conspiring to import marijuana to selling alligator hides.

The action marked the second set of pardons Obama has granted since becoming president. The first pardons, last December, went to nine people whose crimes included possessing drugs, counterfeiting and mutilating coins.

Like the earlier pardons, the latest did not involve anyone well-known. The cases date back as far as 1975, when Randy Eugene Dyer of Burien, Wash., was sentenced to serve five years in prison in the conspiracy to import marijuana and two related crimes.

Another pardon recipient was Bobby Gerald Wilson of Summerton, S.C., sentenced in 1985 to 3 1/2 months in prison for aiding and abetting the possession and sale of illegal American alligator hides.

Others who received pardons:

_ Allen Edward Peratt Sr. of Sioux Falls, S.D., sentenced in 1990 to 2 1/2 years in prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.

_Christine Marie Rossiter of Lincoln, Neb., sentenced in 1992 to three years of probation for conspiring to distribute less than 110 pounds of marijuana.

_ Patricia Ann Weinzatl of Prentice, Wis., sentenced in 2001 to three years of probation for structuring financial transactions to evade bank reporting requirements.

_ Michael Ray Neal of Palm Coast, Fla., sentenced in 1991 to six months in prison for unauthorized decryption of satellite cable programming.

_ Edwin Alan North of Wolcottville, Ind., sentenced to six months of probation for transferring a firearm without payment of tax.

_ Danny Alonzo Levitz of Angola, Ind., sentenced in 1980 to two years of probation for conspiracy.

The White House, as is typically the case with every administration, offered no elaboration for the president's pardons.

Comments

[Ramon Moreno]

03:41 PM on 05/22/2011

I won't believe it until I see the pardon certificate.

[Sisa]

10:14 PM on 05/21/2011

Hoka Hey ! Free Leonard Peltier

[wdw808]

08:31 PM on 05/21/2011

a non-story

[mansterEZ]

07:55 PM on 05/21/2011

Like any other Presidential pardon this is obviously political in some respect, but these are really puzzling. There is no pattern. Maybe that's his handlers' intention. To think a President makes these decisions alone in a vacuum embraces purposeful ignorance.

[realtalking]

08:25 PM on 05/21/2011

People pardoned by President Obama usually are people who have completely in a POSITIVE way, changed their lives.

[mansterEZ]

09:56 PM on 05/21/2011

Really? A tiger never changes the stripes. They just find better ways to blend in. Being obvious almost always has negative consequences unless there are no skeletons to hide. I can count the perfect people in the whole world on one hand.

[Douglas90723]

07:46 PM on 05/21/2011

VP Biden is preparing a pardon for someone we all know.........

[ChiGuy]

07:27 PM on 05/21/2011

Frankly, every conviction based on three-strikes laws should be examined.

The addict son of an old high school friend of mine had three arrests for possession of heroin (each time for personal use quantity) whose first parole hearing isn't until 2019.

If states and the federal government want to find some much needed cash, all they need do is examine why they're wiling to spend a million dollars to incarcerate people like this young man, when for a fraction of that money, they could get him and others like into an intense rehabilitation program.

[paydd]

01:14 AM on 05/22/2011

He probably should have gotten HIMSELF into rehab after his first, or possibly second arrest..

[ChiGuy]

09:43 AM on 05/22/2011

So, your assumption is that he hasn't tried before? Not surprising.

When someone wants to demonstrate how little they understand about addiction, they make comments like that. If someone operates under the assumption that addicts actually like or enjoy their dependance, they make comments like that.

The young man has tried rehab in the past. You really should do a little research on the average number of times people like him have to go through the process before it actually "takes".

[Enroh Mot]

07:06 PM on 05/21/2011

The war on drugs is a war on the poor, the drug money laundering banks are rarely prosecuted.

[chiropter]

06:53 PM on 05/21/2011

Well this is a pretty cryptic list.

[Nel Pineda]

06:51 PM on 05/21/2011

I can't find Dick Cheney's name on the lists. Can anyone help me?

[F4U Corsair]

07:25 PM on 05/21/2011

I think you are beyond help friend. Dick Cheney was never guilty of crimes.

I know it is a wet dream for Cheney Haters to wish he was guilty, but he wasn't. You will have a whole new batch of Republicans to hate in 2012.

[Nel Pineda]

07:58 PM on 05/21/2011

I know you worship him.

[Southern Atheist]

08:08 PM on 05/21/2011

Being guilty of a crime and being convicted are two different things.

For example: was OJ guilty of murder or was it just not proven in criminal court? He was found guilty in civil court. So is he is he guilty or not?

Just because a court/jury makes a decision of ones guilt or innocence does not give you the truth, just ones opinion of what they think is the truth.

And just because there is not enough evidence to prove that someone committed a crime does not mean they didn't do it. It could mean they covered up the crime very well.

[Eleanor Ruby Moon]

07:36 PM on 05/21/2011

Nel: My first thought presactly!

[AG creative]

06:36 PM on 05/21/2011

Obama needs to double down on the pardons to catch up with George W Bush:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_by_George_W._Bush

[onwisconsin]

06:34 PM on 05/21/2011

It took 4 hours for my last comment to post. Thanks, mods.

[lmktacwa]

07:18 PM on 05/21/2011

Maybe HuffPo Mgmt forgot about the rapture and forgot to schedule extra moderators for today.

[LI2USsomemore]

06:19 PM on 05/21/2011

Whatever the process involved, Mr. President, you need to address our draconian mandatory minimum sentences as they relate to non-violent drug offenses.

By all means pardon away! But the focus needs to change.

[F4U Corsair]

07:22 PM on 05/21/2011

I don't think anyone should get a pardon from an official. If the laws are deemed to harsh, then change the law, but letting one individual pick who gets let off their time is wrong.

[LI2USsomemore]

10:11 PM on 05/21/2011

Pardons are after the fact, so no one got off early.

Like I said, if presidents want to do the righteous, moral thing, they would push for elimination of MM sentences.

[xamfra]

06:06 PM on 05/21/2011

Did that mom who was convicted for sending her kids to a better school get out of jail yet? She should have her record expunged.

[CANTHATBE]

07:23 PM on 05/21/2011

She deserves one immediately. Maybe she will get one in 2050 when it doesn't matter anymore. That seems to be what the administration is doing.

[rightvsleftsux]

04:48 PM on 05/21/2011

Where are all of the animal rights people on this issue? He pardoned someone for dealing in the hides of those poor defenseless alligators!

[lmktacwa]

07:22 PM on 05/21/2011

As always, Obama RIAO (Republican In Actions Only) does stuff that irks both sides of the aisle. He calls it "compromise". I call it "ignoring his base".

[lmktacwa]

07:28 PM on 05/21/2011

That will be the weightiest and most influentia­l measure of his success or failure as a president. (IMHO)

(if this is a repost, I apologize.... the performance of this website is very degraded today, and the moderators HAVE apparently been raptured.)

[Genders]

04:46 PM on 05/21/2011

Ok, the decrypting satellite six month was a good call, but the rest sound like personal favors.

[ChiGuy]

07:13 PM on 05/21/2011

They generally are. The "favors" are usually for Representatives and Senators with whom a president either has a good relationship, or wants to build one.
That is the way it has been done for at least 100 years.

[Genders]

08:30 PM on 05/21/2011

Sad, but probably true.