Lawrence Condemns Bush's "Get-Out of-Jail-Free" Card for Scooter Libby

Press Release

George W. Bush has demeaned the American criminal justice system and dealt a significant blow to America's reputation as a just society by his annulment of a federal Judge's jail sentence in the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby case.

As a District Attorney, I am constantly aware that the success of our criminal justice system depends squarely upon the public's belief that outcomes, whether they may agree with them or not, are based upon an unbiased process free from political interference.

No matter what the view of American politics has been throughout our long history the American criminal justice system has always been held in very high esteem as a model of how a government can address crime and achieve justice beyond the influence of politics.

American lawyers and judges are invited to travel all over the world to consult with emerging democracies on how to build criminal justice systems that are based on the rule of law and not the raw exertion of power. This continues even today when world opinion of our government's policies is at an all time low.

Now, in one quick action, President Bush has inflicted a devastating blow to the respect Americans have for their criminal justice system by commuting Mr. Libby's jail sentence.

Mr. Libby was given all the protections against politically motivated punishment that are built into our criminal justice system:

1. independent and unbiased prosecution
2. grand jury screening of all charges;
3. representation by defense counsel
4. trial before a jury of his peers
5. Sentencing by a judge appointed for life to avoid the political considerations of reappointment

Yet despite all these protections, President Bush has exerted his personal will on the American criminal justice system to determine a political outcome.

His defenders point to Presidential pardons throughout history as justification but there is no comparison between those actions and President Bush's.

We are at a very critical time in our history where the honesty and integrity of the government's own motivations are being questioned. A point at which unmonitored domestic surveillance programs, the firing of federal prosecutors, judicial incursion into presidential electoral politics and the growing disparity between the very wealthy and the average citizen in our country is causing Americans to question the very belief in the fundamental fairness upon which our society is based.

It is at this time that the integrity of our elected officials is most important to the success of our country. And it is at this time that dishonesty and abuse of power by elected officials and those who served them must receive the fullest and swiftest punishment from our criminal justice system.

President Bush's action sends the clear message to all who are watching that persons of power and political privilege in our society are exempt from the full consequences of their actions.

Unfortunately that is a message that will on outlive our current political conflicts and strikes at the very core of the basic and fundamental truths upon which our society is built.

Mark W. Lawrence is the District Attorney for York County and the former President of the Maine Senate.

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