Politics

Bush Issues First Pardons

December 23, 2002 / 3:31 PM EST / AP

President Bush pardoned seven Americans Monday for an array of mostly minor offenses, from a Mississippi man who tampered with a car odometer to a postal employee who stole $10.90 worth of mail.

They were the first pardons of his administration.

Mr. Bush also pardoned a Tennessee man sentenced in 1962 for making untaxed whiskey; an Oregon man convicted in 1966 in a grain-theft conspiracy; an Iowa man sentenced in 1989 for lying to the Social Security Administration; a Washington state man sentenced in 1972 for stealing $38,000 worth of copper wire; and a Wisconsin minister who refused to be inducted into the military, sentenced in 1957.

Mr. Bush announced his pardons with little fanfare, and maintained a longstanding tradition by doing it near the holidays.

While he personally approved the pardons, the announcement was made by the Department of Justice, with the White House quietly signing off. Mr. Bush is spending part of the long Christmas week at Camp David.

Pardons have become a politically delicate presidential prerogative in recent years.

President Clinton left office two years ago touched by another scandal after a spree of controversial last-minute pardons. The first President Bush ignited a firestorm at the end of his presidency by pardoning former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.

The seven people Mr. Bush pardoned on Monday:

Kenneth Franklin Copley of Lyles, Tenn. Sentenced to two years probation in 1962 for manufacturing untaxed whiskey.

Harlan Paul Dobas of Portland, Ore. Sentenced to three months in jail in 1966 for conspiracy involving the sale of grain stolen from his employer.

Stephen James Jackson of Picayune, Miss. Sentenced to three years probation and fined $500 in 1993 for altering an odometer.

Douglas Harley Rogers of Brookfield, Wis. A Jehovah's Witnesses minister sentenced to two years in jail in 1957 for failing to report for military induction.

Walter F. Schuerer of Amana, Iowa. Fined $15,000 in 1989 for making a false statement to the Social Security Administration regarding his employment.

Paul Herman Wieser of Tacoma, Wash. Sentenced to 18 months probation in 1972 for stealing $38,000 worth of copper wire.

Olgen Williams of Indianapolis. A postal worker sentenced to one year in jail in 1971 for stealing $10.90 from the mail.