PRO AND CON: SHOULD THE MAYOR HAVE THE POKWER TO PARDON?; PARDON IDEA COULD MEAN SLEAZY JUSTICE

The following letter was sent to every member of the Cape Girardeau City Council prior to Monday night's meeting during which an ordinance was proposed to allow the mayor to pardon Municipal Court offenders.

I am writing to encourage you to vote against the proposed city ordinance that would give the mayor the power to pardon someone prosecuted in city court. I believe the proposed law would create far worse problems that it purports to remedy.

First, I feel the law is totally unnecessary. A person who claims his innocence in Municipal Court may insist upon a trial, where the city attorney must prove he is guilty in a trial conducted under established rules of evidence in front of a judge who is an attorney. If he loses, he may appeal to the local circuit court, and from there may appeal all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court. A person who pleads guilty is subject to being sentenced by the judge, and if the judge did not order a sentence within the statutory range of punishment, the defendant could obtain a writ of mandamus or a writ of prohibition from the local circuit court to stop the improper punishment.

I am concerned about the very real possibility that this law would produce sleazy justice. I am worried that it would cause guilty people to go free because of wheeling and dealing by politicians behind closed doors.

I am not saying that I feel Al Spradling III would do anything improper. He is a good friend of mine and I respect his intelligence and integrity. I have voted for him before and I will do so again. But this is simply a bad idea.

We are a nation of laws, not men. Once the mayor has this power, it will be there no matter who is mayor. You would have set up a framework of laws for municipal court prosecutions that is a step backward from equal justice for all and a step toward good-old-boy favoritism.

I am particularly concerned about the effect this law would have on DWI prosecutions. We use Municipal Court convictions in state court as prior convictions to prosecute third-time drunk drivers as felons. These are often otherwise law-abiding citizens who happen to be politically connected. I foresee a line of drunk drivers going to the mayor hoping to pardons to eliminate the chance of going to prison in state court.

I urge you not to try to correct something that does not need correcting. Passing this ordinance would be a mistake.

If you do decide to make the mistake, I hope you will at least be sure the law has two safeguards to it:

(1) Specify that it is not retroactive. In other words, it will apply only to people convicted in the future. This will prevent the city council form looking like an arm of the SEMO Booster Club, passing a law just to help the basketball players recently convicted in city court; and

(2) Provide that the mayor may grant a pardon only after a hearing at which the Municipal Court prosecutor and police department and victim of the offense are given an opportunity to be heard in public upon the issue of whether the pardon should issue; furthermore, notice of the hearing should be given at least 30 days in advance to the city attorney, the chief of police, any victim of the crime, and the local news media.

I am sure I am writing this letter not just on behalf of the state prosecutor, but also on behalf of many police officers, crime victims, and organizations against drunk driving. Please don't pass this ill-conceived law in haste.

H. Morley Swingle is the prosecuting attorney of Cape Girardeau County.