Ernie, I beg again for your pardon

Mark learned the following from a major attorney in this state this evening. It deals with Section 77, the one that Gov. Ernie Fletcher invoked during his press conference tonight.

Mark: Section 77 relates to retrospective acts only -- the Governor is empowered to nullfy punishment. This was the ruling (dicta) of the Kentucky Supreme Court in Anderson v. Commonwealth, 107 S.W.3d 193 (Ky. 2003) -- opinion by Johnstone -- all concur! In the opinion (p. 196) the Court looked to the US Supreme Court's decision in Schick v. Reed, 419 U.S. 256 (1974) for guidance from the English common law in construing a President's power to pardon under Article II. The Schick Court observed that the Constitution gives "plenary authority to the President to "forgive" the convicted person in part or entirely." Id. at 266. The Governor just has no authority to pardon indicted persons because there is no fine to remit, no sentence to commute and no punishment imposed from which to grant a pardon or reprieve. There sure as hell is no authority to pardon persons who "might" be indicted!

However, this brings us to another thing from what I read. Gov. Fletcher signed no applications if he's doing a blanket pardon. A reader of Mark's blog commented to him saying that the Governor "shall file with each application therefore a statement of the reasons for his decision thereon, which application and statement shall always be open to public inspection."

Ernie, you are in serious trouble. You said you were cleaning up a mess but you made your own instead.