"An inmate who starts out a pen pal and ends up a husband-that's sketchy territory, but in Wil and Linda Yazzie's case, it turned out to be sacred territory. She was a devoted Christian. He was a hopeless alcoholic whose addictions robbed him of decades of his life, yet he goes from career criminal to Hollywood actor and devoted minster with a message. If it weren't for the unconditional love and faithful prayers of his wife, Linda, Wil would be dead-like most of his drinking buddies. Total Pardon is an extraordinary, true reversal-of-destiny story that offers radical hope for those struggling with addiction"--Verso of back cover

"An inmate who starts out a pen pal and ends up a husband-that's sketchy territory, but in Wil and Linda Yazzie's case, it turned out to be sacred territory. She was a devoted Christian. He was a hopeless alcoholic whose addictions robbed him of decades of his life, yet he goes from career criminal to Hollywood actor and devoted minster with a message. If it weren't for the unconditional love and faithful prayers of his wife, Linda, Wil would be dead-like most of his drinking buddies. Total Pardon is an extraordinary, true reversal-of-destiny story that offers radical hope for those struggling with addiction"--Verso of back cover

Until President Gerald Ford pardoned former president Richard Nixon for the Watergate scandal, most members of the public probably paid little attention to the president's use of the clemency power. Ford's highly controversial pardon of Nixon, however, ignited such a firestorm of protest that, fairly or unfairly, it may have cost him the presidency in 1976. Ever since, presidential pardons have been the subject of increased scrutiny and the focus of news media with a voracious appetite for scandal. This first book-length treatment of presidential pardons in twenty years updates the clemency controversy to consider its more recent uses-or misuses. Blending history, law, and politics into a seamless narrative, Jeffrey Crouch provides a close look at the application and scrutiny of this power. His book is a virtual primer on the subject, covering all facets from its background in English law to current applications. Crouch considers the framers' vision of how clemency would fit into the separation of powers as an "act of grace" or a check on injustice, then explains how the president and Congress have struggled for supremacy over the pardon power, with the Supreme Court generally deferring to the executive branch's desire for its broadest possible application. Before the modern era, presidents rarely interfered in the justice system to protect aides from prosecution, and Crouch examines some of the more controversial pardons in our history, from the Whiskey rebels to Jimmy Hoffa. In the wake of Watergate, he shows, the use of presidential pardons has become more controversial. Crouch assesses whether independent counsel investigations and special prosecutors have prompted the executive to use the pardon as a weapon in interbranch political warfare. He argues that the clemency power has been misused by recent presidents, who have used it to protect themselves or their subordinates, or to reward supporters. And although he concedes that Ford's pardon of Nixon reflected the framers' concerns about preserving government in a time of crisis, he argues that more recent cases involving the Iran-Contra conspirators, commodities trader Marc Rich, and vice-presidential chief-of-staff "Scooter" Libby have demonstrated a disturbing misapplication of power. In fleshing out these misuses of clemency, Crouch weighs the pros and cons of proposed amendments to the pardon power, one of the few powers that are virtually unlimited in the Constitution. The Presidential Pardon Power takes up a key issue in debates over the imperial presidency and urges that public and scholars alike pay closer attention to a dangerous trend.

A bird tries to keep his spot to himself only to discover that spot is not so safe.

Florida has nearly 101,000 inmates in 49 major state prisons and numerous correctional facilities called annexes and work camps.A clemency commutation of sentence and parole are alternate paths to the same goal, which is to release the inmate early. Both involve compassion, redemption, and forgiveness, and are the ultimate grant of a second chance. To get either, you must convince elected or appointed officials that the inmate will never commit another serious crime. However, clemency and parole involve different decision-makers, rules and timeframes.Here is the so-called secret sauce (the actual "how-to" steps to leave prison early), written by one of Florida's most distinguished clemency lawyers.

From Gerald Ford's preemptive pardon of Richard Nixon and Donald Trump's claims that as president he could pardon himself to the posthumous royal pardon of Alan Turing, the power of the pardon has a powerful hold on the political and cultural imagination. In Theaters of Pardoning, Bernadette Meyler traces the roots of contemporary understandings of pardoning to tragicomic "theaters of pardoning" in the drama and politics of seventeenth-century England. Shifts in how pardoning was represented on the stage and discussed in political tracts and in Parliament reflected the transition from a more monarchical and judgment-focused form of the concept to an increasingly parliamentary and legislative vision of sovereignty. Meyler shows that on the English stage, individual pardons of revenge subtly transformed into more sweeping pardons of revolution, from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, where a series of final pardons interrupts what might otherwise have been a cycle of revenge, to later works like John Ford's The Laws of Candy and Philip Massinger's The Bondman, in which the exercise of mercy prevents the overturn of the state itself. In the political arena, the pardon as a right of kingship evolved into a legal concept, culminating in the idea of a general amnesty, the "Act of Oblivion," for actions taken during the English Civil War. Reconceiving pardoning as law-giving effectively displaced sovereignty from king to legislature, a shift that continues to attract suspicion about the exercise of pardoning. Only by breaking the connection between pardoning and sovereignty that was cemented in seventeenth-century England, Meyler concludes, can we reinvigorate the pardon as a democratic practice.

Fr. Francis Randolph presents a very positive and practical understanding of the immense value of the sacrament of confession for the modern Catholic. Father Randolph helps the reader to see how the sacrament of confession meets the deepest needs of the penitent on the spiritual, emotional and psychological levels. Step by step we follow the different stages of the rite, looking at the various elements of the sacrament and what they mean for the average sinner in the box. The author draws on his own experiences, on both sides of the grille, to explain what is actually happening in this sacrament, and why it is so helpful for growing in the love of God and neighbor. Because of so much recent confusion over the nature and purpose of the sacrament, the book tackles the common objections and anxieties over confession, and recommends frequent confession for getting rid of stress and anxiety, and growing in confidence before God.

Extroverted, declarative, jazzy, and vital, Beg No Pardon commands attention from the first word to the last. Lynne Thompson’s poetry is brimming with personality and attitude in the very best sense—pride, dignity, and graceful indignation—in poems about the search for legacy, love of legacy, and joy of legacy. Thompson explores identity from a little-known and complicated beginning, both personally and culturally. Using the music and language of her hybrid culture Thompson describes a vivid world of Afro-Caribbean heritage and late 20th-century life. -- Provided by publisher.