When considering whether to offer a recommendation for a posthumous pardon to legendary heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, how much investigation is required?
On October 18, 1912, Johnson was arrested on the grounds that his relationship with Lucille Cameron violated the Mann Act against “transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes” due to her being a prostitute. Cameron, soon to become his second wife, refused to cooperate and the case fell apart. Less than a month later, Johnson was arrested again on similar charges. This time the woman, another prostitute named Belle Schreiber with whom he had been involved in 1909 and 1910, testified against him, and he was convicted by a jury in June 1913. The conviction was despite the fact that the incidents used to convict him took place prior to passage of the Mann Act. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.
Johnson skipped bail, and left the country, joining Lucille in Montreal on June 25, before fleeing to France. For the next seven years, they lived in exile in Europe, South America and Mexico. Johnson returned to the U.S. on 20 July 1920. He surrendered to Federal agents at the Mexican border and was sent to the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth to serve his sentence. He was released on July 9, 1921
The problem was that these women were white and Jack Johnson was black. I don’t think it should take more than an afternoon or two to draw up the briefs justifying a pardon. But the DOJ doesn’t have the time.
“It is the department’s position that the limited resources which are able to process requests for Presidential clemency — now being submitted in record numbers — are best dedicated to requests submitted by persons who could truly benefit from a grant of the request,” wrote DOJ attorney Ronald Rodgers.
Lame.
