Clemency offer debate to heat up

Información enviada a Mario Rojas, Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico, a 2 de Septiembre, 1999. update 9/2/99.

Clemency offer debate to heat up
September 2, 1999
BY LYNN SWEET WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

You may think President Clinton struck the right balance in offering clemency to 11 jailed Puerto Rican nationalists by putting conditions on their release.

You may think Clinton should have granted freedom to all 15 prisoners in question with no strings attached.

You may think Clinton should have done nothing. And you might be suspicious that the president timed his actions to help first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's expected Senate bid by pandering to New York's sizeable Puerto Rican population.

Controversy is escalating over Clinton's clemency decision that seemed to satisfy no one involved in the matter. Congressional clemency foes are calling for hearings; the Senate has one set for Sept. 15.

Chicago figures in much of the history and debate. Several of the 15 prisoners in question are from the city. Some of the trials were held in the 1980s in Dirksen Federal Building courtrooms. Some crimes linked to the FALN--the Spanish acronym for the Armed Forces of National Liberation--occurred in the Chicago area.

A pro-Puerto Rico independence Chicago lawmaker, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), has been a leader in the coalition of political, religious and civil rights groups lobbying for unconditional commutation. The prisoners' lawyer, Jan Susler, is based in Chicago.

Before the issue is overtaken by demagoguery, here are things to think about:

Why now? The timing of the decision, announced Aug. 11, was keyed to the Aug. 6 departure of White House Counsel Charles Ruff, who has returned to private practice. The clemency petition had been pending for years, long before the first lady got involved in a Senate bid. Ruff said he promised Gutierrez and New York Democrats Jose Serrano and Nydia Velazquez that he would wrap it up before he left the White House.

"This was a matter pending for a long period of time and I would not try to require [the House members] to speak with my successor in my job," Ruff said Wednesday. "There was little point to have someone start from scratch." Ruff said speculation that Hillary Clinton's Senate plans had anything to do with his recommendation to Clinton was "nonsense."

If Clinton offered the commutation to help his wife--let's not rule out anything--the predictable backlash that it already has spawned in New York seems not worth the trouble. New York Mayor Rudy Giuiani blasted the deal, as has Mayor Daley. Clemency looms as a Senate campaign issue.

The unique condition Clinton imposed called for each prisoner to sign a statement "renouncing the use or threatened use of violence to achieve any goal, including any goal concerning the status of Puerto Rico." Since the prisoners previously have renounced violence, that should not be a problem.

One of the complaints about the deal is that two imprisoned sisters, Chicagoans Ida Luz Rodriguez and Alicia Rodriguez (who attended grammar school with Gutierrez), would not be able to see each other since each is a convicted criminal.

The conditions in question are standard rules attached to every grant of parole, which is what Clinton is offering.

Parole, in some ways, is like being in a prison without walls. People on parole have few rights and a lot of do's and don'ts, with one being they cannot associate with anybody who has a criminal record without permission of a probation officer.

If this were a reasonable world, the sisters would not have to worry about getting permission to see each other. The New York Times reported that law enforcement agencies opposed leniency. In weighing the offer, the prisoners will decide whether to trust authorities--who oppose their release--with their fates.

And in the end, there is this to consider. The prisoners' sentences ranged from 35 to 90 years for robbery, car theft and improper possession of weapons. None was convicted of a crime connected to a death or injury. They've all been in jail since the 1980s. They have been doing a lot of time.

From: ALM alm1998@aol.com
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