Bush Grants Pardons

...no....not those, not yet. But I wonder what we'll find out about the following folks in the days to come, either their connections to Bush, family, or friends, or the political manuevering behind the commutations and pardons. It does seem that they're mostly fraud related, so maybe he's hoping to infer some sort of precendent.....

President Bush has granted full pardons to five people, including one South Carolina man who died last year, and commuted the sentences of two others, the Justice Department announced.

The man who died, Samuel Wattie Guerry of Kingstree, S.C., had been convicted of food stamp fraud and sentenced in October 1994 to two years' probation and fined $5,000.

A second man from Kingstree, Johnson Heyward Tisdale, was also pardoned for an identical food stamp offense in 1994, according to a Justice Department statement issued Friday.

Other pardons were granted to:

_Paul Jude Donnici of Kansas City, Mo., for a 1993 conviction for using a telephone to transmit wagering information.

_Charles E. Hamilton of Bellevue, Wash., for a 1989 mail fraud conviction.

_Kenneth Lynn Norris of Yukon, Okla., for a 1993 conviction for illegal disposal of hazardous waste.

Bush commuted the sentence of Geraldine Gordon, convicted in Las Vegas of a drug distribution charge in 1989 and sentenced to 240 months in prison. Gordon will be released on Sept. 20.

The president also commuted the sentence of Bobby Mac Berry, of Burlington, N.C., who had been sentenced to 108 months in prison in 1997 for marijuana and money laundering convictions. Berry will be released on May 27.

The Justice Department issued no further details about the cases.

Any info on the preceding criminal cases would be appreciated.