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A
history of presidential pardons A
history of pardons
The most
The fewest
Notable pardons
Under George W. Bush
President Bush has granted 69 pardons and commuted two individuals' sentences since taking office in 2001. Details: Bush,
a former Texas governor, has shown mercy to people from 35 states. Residents of
these states have received the most: Florida: 5 None of the people pardoned by Bush committed violent crimes. A sampling of their offenses: Theft-related charges: 14 Drug charges: 10 Bootlegging: 6 Bush has granted clemency to people whose crimes were committed years ago: Longest gap between sentencing and clemency: 57 years. Charles Power of Fort Pierce, Fla., was sentenced in 1948 for interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle and was pardoned last week. Shortest gap: 7 years. Bobby Berry of Burlington, N.C., was sentenced in 1997 on marijuana charges. His sentence was commuted in 2004. David McCall Jr., a former mayor of Plano, Texas, was sentenced on savings and loan fraud charges in 1997 and pardoned in 2004 on his deathbed. Source:
USA TODAY research
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Franklin
Roosevelt: 3,687 in 12 years. The longest-serving president issued the most pardons.
Woodrow Wilson: 2,480 in 8 years.
Harry
Truman: 2,044 in 8 years. He pardoned Japanese-Americans who resisted the draft
during World War II.
Calvin Coolidge: 1,545 in 6 years.
Herbert Hoover: 1,385 in 4 years. The most by any single-term president.
William Harrison: Zero in 1 month. He didn't live long enough to issue any
pardons.
James Garfield: Zero in 6 months. Neither did he.
George
Washington: 16 in 8 years. Leaders of the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion, a Pennsylvania
protest against federal taxes on "spirits," were among those pardoned
by the first president.
John
Adams: 21 in 4 years. He pardoned participants in the 1799 Fries Uprising, a Pennsylvania
protest against federal property taxes.
Zachary
Taylor: 38 in 16 months. He pardoned more people in his abbreviated White House
tenure than George W. Bush did in his entire first term.
In
1869, Andrew Johnson pardoned Samuel Mudd, a doctor who treated the broken leg
of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. 
In
1971, Richard Nixon commuted the sentence of union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who had
been convicted of jury tampering and fraud. 
In
1974, Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, who had not been convicted of Watergate-related
crimes. In 1977, Ford pardoned "Tokyo Rose" (Iva Toguri), an American
forced to broadcast propaganda to Allied troops in Japan during World War II.
In 1979, Jimmy Carter commuted Patricia Hearst's armed-robbery sentence. She
was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2001. 
In
1989, Ronald Reagan pardoned New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for making
illegal contributions to Nixon's re-election campaign in 1972. 
In
1992, George H.W. Bush pardoned six defendants in the Iran-contra investigation,
including former Defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and former national security
adviser Robert McFarlane. 
In
2001, Clinton pardoned fugitive billionaire Marc Rich, his half-brother Roger
Clinton and Susan McDougal, who went to jail for refusing to answer questions
about Clinton's Whitewater dealings. 
