Branstad no fan of granting pardons

DES MOINES - Since returning to the governor's office in 2011, Terry Branstad has granted fewer pardons on average than any Iowa governor in more than six decades.

His record of granting reduced jail sentences is similarly stingy.

A review of Iowa gubernatorial records going back to 1949 - a span covering 11 administrations - shows Branstad, since his return to office in 2011, granted fewer pardons than any other Iowa governor during that time span.

Branstad is closer to the middle of that pack for granting commutations, or reduced sentences, since 2011. However, remove the roughly three dozen commutations that were the direct result of a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that negated lifetime sentences for juveniles, and Branstad once again drops to the fewest granted since at least 1949.

A pardon forgives an individual for a crime committed and restores lost rights.

A commutation reduces an individual's sentence and makes him or her eligible for parole.

'I've always tried to be very thoughtful and very judicious in making these decisions. The governor is given the extraordinary power of being able to grant pardons,” said Branstad, a Republican who was a lawyer before being first elected to public office - the Iowa House - in 1972.

Branstad has approved just more than four pardons per year, on average, since 2011.

Not only is that the lowest average of any governor since 1949, it is dramatically lower than the averages posted by Branstad's two immediate predecessors, both of whom were Democrats.

Chet Culver, who governed Iowa from 2007 to 2010, approved an average of nearly 24 pardons per year, a rate six times higher than Branstad. Tom Vilsack, who led Iowa for two terms from 1999 to 2006, approved more than 12 pardons per year.

Even Gov. Robert Ray, a Republican under whom Branstad served as lieutenant governor, granted nearly a dozen pardons per year on average, or a rate three times higher than Branstad's.

Since 2011, Branstad has been slightly stricter even than his previous self: He approved an annual average of seven pardons during his first stint as governor from 1983 to 1999.

Branstad said he believes a governor's power to pardon should be used sparingly. In addition to the normal application process, he requires a face-to-face interview with the applicant.

'I believe a pardon, which is an extraordinary power, which basically eliminates that conviction from their record, should only be granted if you're very confident this person is an exemplary citizen who has given back and helped other people in substantial ways,” he said. 'So, I have required a personal interview. I want to be able to look them straight in the eye. I want to feel confident that they're never going to commit another crime, that they're never going to embarrass me or the people of the state of Iowa.”

Branstad is even less a fan of commutations.

During his first, 16-year term in office, he approved just two reduced sentences. In his second, six-year stint, he has approved 39 commutations, but 38 of those were in response to that U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Take those out and Branstad, during 22 years in office, has approved three reduced sentences overall.

'Most governors keep in mind they're running for re-election almost always. The worst thing you can do is be called soft on crime,” said Robert Rigg, a Drake University Law School professor who specializes in criminal law. 'No politician ever wanted to get stuck with being soft on crime. Certainly, Terry Branstad can never be accused of being soft on crime.”

Branstad's rare commutations are not as strikingly different from his predecessors as were his pardons. Culver granted no commutations during his four years in office; Vilsack granted seven during his eight years; Ray granted an average of just two per year during his 14 years in office.

The Iowa governors with the highest rates of commutations held office during the 1950s. Leo Hoegh granted 30 in two years, and Herschel C. Loveless averaged 12 per year during his one term.

'Any time you deal with a governor, you're dealing with the political office. And any governor's staff is going to sit there and try to review the downside of doing a parole, or commutations, or a pardon,” Rigg said. 'I'm sure all governors, whether Terry Branstad or somebody else, is going to take that into the calculus of whether you grant a pardon or commutation. But hopefully that's not the only reason.”

When pardons and commutations are combined and averaged, Branstad's separate tenures account for two of the three lowest among all Iowa governors since at least 1949. If those commutations that were the result of that U.S. Supreme Court ruling are removed, Branstad's tenures are the two lowest.

Branstad received nearly 400 requests for pardons since 2011 and approved 26. He received almost 90 requests for commutations and granted 39. Branstad said the application process for pardons and commutations is thorough, and justified his rare approvals as having public safety in mind.

'We go through a very extensive process. We do an extensive (Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation) background investigation, it has to go before the parole board before it ever comes to me,” Branstad said. 'The good news is we've not had the tragedies that have occurred in some other states where governors haven't been as careful or judicious and people that they pardoned have then committed other serious crimes.”

P.S. Ruckman, a professor at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., who writes a blog on executive clemency, said while commutations can be risky, he thinks there is little downside to granting pardons.

'When I see a pardon number that low, I just don't get why that is not in the hundreds,” Ruckman said. 'Because, again, the political risks there are just about zero.”

Ruckman said governors appear to be motivated, in part, by wanting to avoid granting a pardon or a commutation to an individual who then commits another crime. Ruckman and Rigg both noted George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign ad that used the example of a felon who raped a woman after he escaped while on a weekend furlough program supported by Bush's opponent, Michael Dukakis. Even though that individual was given neither a commutation nor a pardon, Ruckman and Rigg said they think that kind of example weighs on governors when making those decisions.

'There's something to this idea that you should be careful, but you should be careful anyway,” Ruckman said. 'If you look into those high-profile things, they're almost always about commutations (not pardons). The idea that there is some risk to restoring rights is just lunacy.”