After examining hundreds of pardons issued during the Bush and Obama administrations (mostly the former), it was found that white criminals were freed four times more often than minorities.

 

From 2001 to 2008, President George W. Bush issued pardons for 189 people—176 of whom were white. Of the remaining 13 who were pardoned, seven were black, four Hispanic, one Asian and one Native American.

 

To date, President Barack Obama has pardoned 22 individuals. Only two were minorities.

 

Both presidents relied on the Office of the Pardon Attorney for recommendations. The office during the Bush years was “given wide latitude to apply subjective standards, including judgments about the ‘attitude’ and the marital and financial stability of applicants,” wrote ProPublica, which added that “records reveal repeated instances in which white applicants won pardons with transgressions on their records similar to those of blacks and other minorities who were denied.”

 

Former officials in the Bush White House said the president intended to remove politics from the process in order to avoid another Marc Rich scandal, when a fugitive financier won a last-minute pardon after his ex-wife donated to Democratic causes and the Clinton Presidential Library.

–Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Presidential Pardons Heavily Favor Whites (by Dafna Linzer and Jennifer LaFleur,

ProPublica)
Pardon Applicants Benefit From Friends in High Places (by Dafna Linzer, ProPublica)
Propublica Review of Pardons in Past Decade Shows Process Heavily Favored Whites (Dafna Linzer and Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica)