BEGGING PARDON

President Bush pardoned a turkey, dispatching it to a petting zoo. But
over the last two months the president has quietly denied roughly
1,000 applications for pardons and commutations, clearing nearly a
third of the backlog from the previous administration.

According to current and former government officials, that backlog was
fed first by rumors that Bill Clinton was eager to grant pardons as he
left office, then by his desire not to deny too many requests.

"There were cases piling up during the last 18 months of Clinton's
term that were ordinary denials that should have been acted on," said
Margaret Love, a pardon attorney for Presidents Clinton and George
H.W. Bush.

Scholars say the current President Bush is likely to take his cue from
his father, who rejected nine out of ten applications and issued only
77 pardons and commutations. That is well shy of the 459 signed by Mr.
Clinton and the 406 granted by Ronald Reagan, even adjusting for their
twoterms.

Commutations have the worst shot, lawyers said, given the risk of
embarassment if a freed inmate later proves unworthy. Pardons, aimed
at restoring the civil rights of people who have served their time and
their communities, will stand a better chance, lawyers said.

But pardons, too, occasionally backfire. In 1995 then Gov. George W.
Bush pardoned a Texan with an eight-year-old marijuana conviction so
he could work as a constable. Four months later, the man was arrested
for stealing cocaine.