美国国家公共电台 NPR After Arpaio, 4 Answers To Questions About How Pardons Are Supposed To Work

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Every president makes at least one controversial pardon. But Donald Trump¹'s pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is different. It came just seven months into the Trump presidency², and it was announced late Friday night on the verge³ of a historic storm headed for the Texas coast. With us to talk more about the pardon is NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. Hello there.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE⁴: Hey, Kelly.

MCEVERS: So why did Joe Arpaio need to be pardoned in the first place?

JOHNSON: Arpaio had been sheriff in Maricopa County, Ariz., for years since 1993. But his treatment of Latinos had come under scrutiny⁵. There were allegations he was engaging in racially profiling people, detaining people there for no good, legal reason, sometimes ensnaring U.S. citizens. There were also complaints he failed to investigate other crimes - sexual assaults - and that he mistreated inmates⁶ in his jails. A federal judge found that Arpaio had defied a court order to stop detaining Latinos, referred him to the Justice Department on contempt charges. And earlier this year, Kelly, he was convicted.

MCEVERS: Joe Arpaio had been a longtime supporter of Donald Trump, and they were allies in making the false claim that President Obama had been born outside of the United States. Why did President Trump say that he granted this pardon?

JOHNSON: According to a White House statement late Friday, Arpaio is 85 years old, military veteran, a longtime law enforcement figure devoted⁷ to his country. President Trump was motivated by those factors. Now, the president has sweeping⁸ power under the Constitution to grant pardons for federal crimes. Joe Arpaio never went through the Justice Department process for applying for clemency⁹, which usually requires a conviction, punishment and a wait about five years. But under the law, President Trump's able to bypass that system and go it alone. The consequences for him are political, not legal.

MCEVERS: Supporters of the White House have pointed¹⁰ out that there is a long history of presidents who give out pardons for political reasons. Is that true?

JOHNSON: Yes and no. President Obama granted more clemencies¹¹ than any president since Harry¹² Truman, nearly 2,000 of them mostly to drug criminals. But Obama also commuted¹³ or shortened the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning. Manning was convicted of leaking State Department cables and war logs to WikiLeaks. She served seven years.

Obama also pardoned his favorite general. That's a man named James Cartwright, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in another leak case. Cartwright was not yet sentenced when he won the pardon from Obama soon before Obama left office. And of course in the Bill Clinton years, his last-minute pardon of the fugitive¹⁴ money man Marc Rich launched investigations¹⁵ by Congress and the Justice Department.

MCEVERS: So how is Joe Arpaio's case different, if at all, from those examples?

JOHNSON: Well, I've been talking to legal experts since last weekend. Legal experts are pointing out that Arpaio was convicted of violating a federal judge's order, which goes to the heart of the judicial¹⁶ system and its legitimacy¹⁷ from a president who's blasted judges and his own attorney general. Speaking of that attorney general, the Washington Post reported Trump asked Attorney General Sessions to get rid of the case against Arpaio before it went to trial this year. Sessions said no. I talked with a guy named Matt Axelrod, who was an official in the Obama Justice Department, about that. Here's what he had to say.

MATT AXELROD: It's a distressing¹⁸ breach¹⁹ of a traditional and necessary wall of separation between the White House and the Department of Justice when it comes to criminal cases. It's a bedrock principle of law enforcement that criminal investigations and prosecutions²⁰ must be conducted independent of politics.

JOHNSON: So independent of politics - speaking of that independence, President Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder²¹, tweeted over the weekend, the number of times over six years that Obama called and asked me to think about dropping a case - zero.

MCEVERS: NPR's Carrie Johnson, thank you so much.

JOHNSON: You're welcome.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

3 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

6 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

8 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

9 clemency   

n.温和，仁慈，宽厚

参考例句：

• The question of clemency would rest with the King.宽大处理问题，将由国王决定。
• They addressed to the governor a plea for clemency.他们向州长提交了宽刑的申辨书。

10 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

11 clemencies   

n.宽容，仁慈( clemency的名词复数 )；（尤指气候等）温和

参考例句：

12 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

13 commuted   

通勤( commute的过去式和过去分词 )； 减（刑）； 代偿

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment. 他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• The death sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment. 死刑可能減为无期徒刑。

14 fugitive   

adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者

参考例句：

• The police were able to deduce where the fugitive was hiding.警方成功地推断出那逃亡者躲藏的地方。
• The fugitive is believed to be headed for the border.逃犯被认为在向国境线逃窜。

15 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

16 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

17 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

18 distressing   

a.使人痛苦的

参考例句：

• All who saw the distressing scene revolted against it. 所有看到这种悲惨景象的人都对此感到难过。
• It is distressing to see food being wasted like this. 这样浪费粮食令人痛心。

19 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。

20 prosecutions   

起诉( prosecution的名词复数 )； 原告； 实施； 从事

参考例句：

• It is the duty of the Attorney-General to institute prosecutions. 检察总长负责提起公诉。
• Since World War II, the government has been active in its antitrust prosecutions. 第二次世界大战以来，政府积极地进行着反对托拉斯的检举活动。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

21 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。