Celebrities Pardoned For Atrocious Behavior

Actor Mark Wahlberg is seeking a Governor’s Pardon for a hate crime he committed in the ‘80s. A cursory search reveals Wahlberg blinded convenience store owner Thanh Lam in one eye after beating him with a stick while screaming racial epithets.

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By now most of us know pardons can be issued at the state level by governors and also at the federal level by The President. It’s not uncommon for either governors or presidents to issue their pardons during their final day of office. Should Wahlberg have his hate crime expunged as part of a pardon? Check out the other celebrities who have been pardoned, and weigh in via the comment section.

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Photo: WENN

photo: WENN

In a rather surprising move, George W. Bush pardoned John Forte, who was most known as a composer and producer who worked with The Fugees. Forte had already done eight years on a drug smuggling conviction.

Former FBI official W. Mark “Deep Throat” Felt survived the Watergate Scandal before being convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of domestic rebels in the Weather Underground movement. President Ronald Reagan ultimately pardoned Felt.

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After being convicted of mob violence in conjunction with a racially divided brawl, Allen Iverson wasn’t pardoned, but Virginia Governor Doug Wilder granted him clemency and shaved eight months off his sentence so Iverson could graduate high school in 1993.

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New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner made illegal contributions to President Nixon’s campaign in 1972, and he was ultimately convicted and forced to pay a $15,000 fine. President Ronald Reagan signed the pardon of Steinbrenner in 1989.

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After being the poster child for Stockholm syndrome, heiress and socialite Patty Hearst was not granted a pardon by Ronald Reagan or either member of the Bush Administration. After having her sentence for contributing to a bank heist by the Symbionese Liberation Army commuted by Jimm Carter, Hearst was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2001.

All signs point to Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, illegally leaking the name of a CIA operative after the operative husband criticized the Bush administrations invasion of Iraq in 2001. Libby had his sentence commuted to 30 days by President George W. Bush, but refused to fully pardon Libby.

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There was all kinds of proof of Richard Nixon’s guilt in the Watergate scandal. Nixon being pardoned by his successor President Gerald Ford was a clear case of favoritism to prevent Nixon from a trial as a private citizen after his resignation.

Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa was five years into a 13-year sentence when President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence for jury tampering and mail fraud. Four years after the pardon, in 1975, Hoffa disappeared and is presumed dead.

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In 2010, outgoing Florida Governor Charlie Crist requested Doors frontman Jim Morrison be pardoned for two misdemeanor convictions stemming from a 1969 incident in which he allegedly exposed himself to thousands of fans. The request was unanimously granted.

In 2003, New York Governor George Pataki posthumously pardoned comedian Lenny Bruce’s misdemeanor obscenity conviction. Bruce was charged with obscenity in 1964 after allegedly using over 100 words deemed to be obscene during a performance.