FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (June 22, 2014)
Contact: Office of the Hon. Irwin Cotler, MP - +1.514.283.017; Prof. Alan
M. Dershowitz - (Harvard Law School)
A distinguished group of American constitutional and criminal law scholars
and practitioners have written to US President Obama requesting the
commutation of Jonathan Pollard’s sentence to time served.
As the letter puts it, “such commutation is more than warranted if the ends
of justice are to be served, the rule of law respected and simple humanity
secured.”
Among the signatories are six professors from Harvard Law School, Obama’s
alma mater, including: Alan M. Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of
Law; Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor of Law; Philip B.
Heymann, James Barr Ames Professor of Law; and Mary Ann Glendon, Learned
Hand Professor of Law. They are joined by Canadian law professor emeritus
and former Minister of Justice & Attorney General of Canada, Irwin Cotler, a
sometimes visiting professor at Harvard.
The letter sets forth ten compelling considerations for the exercise of
executive clemency by President Obama, including:
Pollard is now serving his twenty-ninth year of an unprecedented life
sentence for the crime of “conveying classified information to a foreign
government.” The usual sentence for this offence is six to eight years, with
actual jail time before release averaging two to four years. Simply put,
Pollard’s unprecedented life sentence is “excessive, grossly
disproportionate, unfair and unjust.”
The sentence of life imprisonment is itself a breach of the plea bargain,
wherein the prosecution had agreed not to seek life imprisonment in return
for Pollard’s guilty plea, a breach characterized by Judge Stephen F.
Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First District as a “complete
and gross miscarriage of justice.”
The life sentence was itself secured as a result of the submission - after
the plea bargain and in violation of it - of a prejudicial ex parte
affidavit to the sentencing judge.
Pollard has not only been excessively and disproportionately punished for
the crime he did commit, but has been effectively punished and maligned for
the crime he never committed – nor was ever charged or convicted of –
namely, the crime of treason.
Pollard was falsely accused over the years of having compromised US security
and American lives in Eastern Europe, when it was Aldridge Ames, the head
of the CIA’s Soviet/Eastern Europe Division, who had himself been both the
architect of those treasonable acts, and the original source of the false
allegations against Pollard.
Virtually everyone who was in a high position of government – and dealt with
the ramifications of what Pollard did at the time – now support his release,
including Secretary of State George Shultz, FBI Director and subsequent CIA
Director William Webster, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence David
Durenberger, and Chairman of House Intelligence Lee Hamilton.
The signatories conclude that, “it is precisely for standing injustices like
this – and where the justice system has failed – that the U.S. Constitution
has vested in the President the power of executive clemency. We urge you to
exercise this power in the pursuit of justice, the rule of law and simple
humanity.”
Text of letter to President Obama:June 20, 2014
President Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC, 20500
Re: Jonathan Pollard
Dear President Obama,
We, the undersigned, scholars and practitioners of American constitutional
and criminal law, write to respectfully request the commutation of Jonathan
Pollard’s sentence to time served. Indeed, such commutation is more than
warranted if the ends of justice are to be served, the rule of law respected
and simple humanity secured – the whole as set forth in the following
considerations:
First, Pollard was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, one count of
conveying classified information to a foreign government, in this instance,
Israel, an ally of the U.S. The usual sentence for this offense is no more
than six or eight years, with actual jail time before release averaging two
to four years. Pollard is now serving his twenty-ninth year of an
unprecedented life sentence – an excessive, grossly disproportionate, unfair
and unjust sentence.
Second, the sentence of life imprisonment was itself a breach of the plea
bargain wherein the prosecution agreed not to seek life imprisonment in
return for Pollard’s guilty plea, his cooperation with the authorities and
his agreement to waive his right to trial by jury, agreeing that a sentence
of less than life imprisonment would serve the interests of justice and also
act as a deterrent. This plea bargain also saved the government much time,
money and prospective embarrassment of conducting a trial involving highly
sensitive information, and where Pollard might well have been acquitted of
the more serious charges. Indeed, Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the First District later referred to the government’s
breach of the plea bargain as a “complete and gross miscarriage of justice.”
Third, the life sentence was itself secured as a result of the submission -
after the plea bargain and in violation of it - of a prejudicial ex parte
affidavit to the sentencing judge by then Secretary of Defense Caspar
Weinberger, to the effect that Pollard had compromised American National
Security and was guilty of “treason.” However, in a 2004 interview, Mr.
Weinberger himself admitted that, in retrospect, the Pollard matter was
“comparatively minor,” and it is not even referenced in his memoires.
Fourth, Pollard has not only been excessively and disproportionately
punished for the crime he did commit, but has been effectively punished for
the crime he never committed – nor was ever charged or convicted of –
namely, the crime of treason. Indeed, notwithstanding Weinberger’s
affidavit - which Pollard never saw nor was ever able to challenge - there
was never anything in the Pollard indictment to suggest that he intended any
harm to the U.S., or sought to benefit any country other than America’s ally
Israel. Yet, regrettably, prosecutorial “sources” in the Central
Intelligence Agency, and the Defense, State and Justice Departments,
continued to maintain, long after the plea bargain, that Pollard was charged
with, and convicted of treason. Indeed, inspired media leaks, often
coincident with Presidential reviews, sustained and amplified this false and
misleading allegation.
Fifth, Pollard was also accused by government agencies over the years of
having compromised intelligence “sources” and “methods” in Eastern Europe –
a charge that was never part of the Pollard indictment, for which no
evidence has ever been adduced, but whose recycling implicated Pollard in
the deaths of at least a dozen U.S. informants in the former Soviet Union.
Importantly, this last accusation is a case study of both government
misrepresentation and cover-up. For while the CIA was accusing Pollard of
this most egregious of charges, it knew – as it later became publicly
known – that senior CIA official Aldridge Ames, the head of the CIA’s
Soviet/Eastern Europe Division, had himself been both the architect of those
treasonable acts, and the original source of the false allegations against
Pollard on those charges.
Sixth, interestingly enough, a largely ignored December 2012
declassification of a 1987 CIA damage assessment concerning Pollard shows,
as Lawrence Korb, assistant Secretary of Defense from 1981-1985 under Caspar
Weinberger reported, that “Pollard had cooperated with them fully and in
good faith, acknowledged that Pollard did not divulge the most sensitive
U.S. national security programs, including military activities, plans,
capabilities, equipment, or communications… that Pollard provided
intelligence only on the Soviet Union’s activities in the Middle East, the
Arab States and Pakistan.” Yet CIA officials, as set forth above, continued
to knowingly and falsely accuse Pollard of actions prejudicial to U.S.
national security.
Seventh, Pollard was himself deprived of the right to effective legal
counsel and defense as his attorney neglected to file a notice of intent to
appeal following the prejudicial sentencing hearing, and Pollard was
therefore forever deprived of his right to a direct appeal against his life
sentence. The only appeals he has been able to bring have been of a
collateral nature only, were dismissed on technical and procedural grounds,
and were never addressed on the merits. Indeed, American former prosecutors
and directors intentionally mislead when they write that Pollards’ life
sentence “was subsequently upheld by the Appellate Court” – masking the fact
that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First District had rejected Pollard’s
appeal in a two to one decision on narrow technical grounds; and that the
only comment on the merits was that of the dissenting Judge Stephen F.
Williams, who – as we previously discussed – had castigated the government
for its breach of the plea bargain agreement.
Eighth, as Governor Bill Richardson recently wrote to you, “virtually
everyone who was in a high position of government – and dealt with the
ramifications of what Pollard did at the time – now support his release.
They include Secretary of State George Shultz, FBI Director and subsequent
CIA Director William Webster, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence David
Durenberger, and Chairman of House Intelligence Lee Hamilton.” Indeed, those
in the Clinton and Bush administrations who have seen the classified
information have come out for Pollard’s release, including major figures
from both the Republican and Democratic parties.
Ninth, it is important to recall and to note that Pollard fully honored the
plea agreement that the government violated; that he fully cooperated with
the authorities; that he has been a model prisoner; that he has apologized
and expressed remorse for his actions; that he has been falsely accused over
the years – by those in a position to know better – of compromising American
security if not American lives - that in a word, Pollard was guilty of
treason; that his sentence and imprisonment is as unjust as it is
unprecedented; that Pollard is aging, in deteriorating health and deserving
of release.
Finally, in the words of Lawrence Korb, “We believe that commuting Pollard’s
sentence to time served is the right and compassionate thing to do. We
believe that his continued incarceration constitutes a travesty of justice
and a stain on the American system of justice.”
Mr. President, it is precisely for standing injustices like this – and where
the justice system has failed and cannot provide relief – that the U.S.
Constitution has vested in the President the power of executive clemency. We
urge you to exercise this power in the pursuit of justice, the rule of law
and simple humanity.
Respectfully,
Alan M. Dershowitz
Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.
Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvad Law School
Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice
Philip B. Heymann
James Barr Ames Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
Former Deputy Attorney General of the US
Irwin Cotler
Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, and sometimes Visiting
Professor at Harvard Law School
Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Gabriella Blum
Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Harvard Law
School
Frank I. Michelman
Robert Walmsley University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University
Mary Ann Glendon
Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University
President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
Nadine Stroessen
Professor of Law, New York Law School
Former President, American Civil Liberties Union, 1991-2008
Monroe Freedman
Professor of law, Hofstra University
Former Dean at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University
Suzanne Last Stone
Professor of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
