The end of a President's term is historically a time full of presidential pardons. With nothing left to run for, the President is free to make controversial decisions whose fallout he'll never have to deal with. Just this week, President Bush commuted the sentence of rapper John Forte and pardoned or commuted the sentences of 15 others, rare actions during his time in office.
Lawrence Tynes is hoping the pardon pen has a little more ink. The Daily News reports today that the Giants kicker is hoping to land a little clemency for his brother Mark, a convicted drug trafficker serving a 27-year sentence in federal prison. Mark Tynes was convicted in 2004 of running a syndicate that transported 3,600 pounds of marijuana between Texas and Florida and then had his sentence extended from 151 to 324 months when witness intimidation charges were added to the fray.
Tynes acknowledges his brother's guilt, but calls the sentence an "injustice." The lawyer hired for the pardon effort is Robert Ortiz, who is also, in something that surely is not a coincidence, the finance chairman of the New Jersey State Republican Party.
"The situation that Mark found himself in was partly due to his own mistakes," Ortiz admits. "We have to make sure that what we submit is accurate and explains Mark's position and why we believe the sentence is excessive...Because Lawrence is high-profile, this will get people to look at the story and take a look at what happened to Mark,"
Actually, it seems that they're hoping Lawrence's profile, which isn't quite as high now that John Carney does most of the kicking, occludes some other factors in Mark's case. This wasn't a first felony offense, or even a second one, but Tynes's third time getting busted for involvement in the drug trade. Whatever you may feel about the oftentimes draconian drug laws in this country, intimidating witnesses perverts the system well outside acceptable bounds. 27 years does sound like a lot of time, four years doesn't, however.
