With a new national hue and cry about yet another backdoor, shady Clinton clemency deal coming to light almost daily, the controversies may cast a pall over all his pardons.
That's sad for those whose commutations came through the front gate, following proper procedure, in full light of day, such as Cory Stringfellow, 31, of Salt Lake City, his supporters say.
"The furor over the doubtful pardons has really sort of brought them all into question, hasn't it?" said Burt Stringfellow, Holladay, the father of Cory, one of 176 people receiving pardons/commutations from former President Bill Clinton virtually as he walked out of the White House and as George W. Bush prepared to take his oath of office.
"But I don't believe Cory's case could in any way be compared to some of those others. Everything we did was totally aboveboard and by the book and went through a lengthy application process with the office of the pardon attorney (Roger C. Adams) in Washington," said Burt, whose son on March 15 will mark his sixth year in a 15 1/2-year sentence before scheduled release from a federal correction facility in Fort Dix, N.J., May 20.
Cory's case was one of 21 submitted for commutation — 17 successfully — by Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), a Washington-based advocacy group that argues judges are hamstrung by unnecessarily harsh sentencing guidelines for nonviolent drug offenders.
That alone separates him from the aroma of the bad batch of Clinton pardons, stresses former Utah Rep. Merrill Cook, one of the champions for Cory's release.
"It really is regrettable that Clinton not only has brought shame on himself with the sordid mess of these disgraceful deals he pulled, but he's cast a shadow of doubt on all his pardons," said Cook, now in private business. "In no way, shape or form should these be confused with the case of Cory Stringfellow. You didn't have a situation where people were stuffing hundred-dollar bills into the pockets of the brother of the former first lady.
"Through FAMM, Cory's applications were done in a timely fashion, following appropriate procedures, giving the office of pardons the opportunity for all the proper review these cases are supposed to have," Cook said.
Burt Stringfellow said his family's involvement with FAMM began in September 1997 when Julie Stewart, president and founder of the group in 1991, came to Salt Lake City to speak at the invitation of the criminal justice section of the Utah State Bar.
Stewart suggested opening a Utah chapter of FAMM.
"The next thing we knew, my wife (Carol) and I were coordinators for the Utah chapter," Burt Stringfellow said.
"We never felt Cory shouldn't have been punished. He did wrong and deserved time in prison," Stringfellow said of Cory's charges, at age 22, of carrying LSD across state lines and selling it in Colorado. "Cory strongly believes he deserved to go to jail, too. But we all feel like the sentences for non-violent drug-related crimes are too severe. And the fact that, in the federal prison system, there is no hope of parole, is just despicable."
When Burt and Carol were installed as leaders of FAMM's Utah chapter, they invited members of Utah's congressional delegation to that first meeting.
"Merrill Cook was the only one who showed up, it turned out, and he was our keynote speaker," StringfellowB said. "We probably wound up talking to him a dozen times over the last several years, and he always has been by our side."
The Utah chapter of FAMM then arranged an audience with Sen. Bob Bennett.
"He was most sympathetic to FAMM's cause," Stringfellow t said, adding the organization corresponded with Bennett and Sen. Orrin Hatch, both R-Utah, "several times."
Cook and Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson wrote letters attached to Cory's formal application for clemency. Handling Cory's application was Salt Lake attorney Jerome Mooney, who also is on FAMM's national advisory board. Cory's application also included letters of support from George Niederauer, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City; Monty Peterson, former member of the Olympus Stake Presidency and 8th Ward bishop as Cory was growing up; Cory's former Boy Scout leaders and Little League football coach.
"Sen. Bennett sent a letter later and Sen. Hatch called a couple weeks before Cory's sentence was commuted and said he had called the office of the pardon attorney and the White House as an advocate for FAMM and Cory's case," Stringfellow said.
Burt said the family for the most part hasn't come under the scrutiny of some pardons. FAMM called the Stringfellows to ask if they objected to Cory's being contacted by Rolling Stone magazine for a piece on the organization's commutations.
"We said we didn't mind, but they picked four or five others," Stringfellow said.
Cory received more national attention, however, in the Feb. 26 issue of Time magazine — the cover reading "The Incredible Shrinking Ex-President" — in a way they feel adds credence to their son's release.
As part of an article on page 31 spotlighting numerous Clinton clemencies, under the headline, "Would You Pardon Them?," there is a picture of Cory next to a paragraph that reads: "Seventeen of Clinton's commutations didn't have Washington heavyweights lobbying for them. Instead, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a leading sentencing reform organization, pushed Clinton to help correct what it called sentences run amok.
"The group prepared applications for minor offenders like Cory Stringfellow, sentenced to long prison terms — often while their co-defendants got lighter terms for testifying against them. Amid the furor over Clinton's factory of scandalous pardons, these justifiable acts of mercy have been overlooked. Too bad, Bill."
E-mail: gtwyman@desnews.com