Clemency For Pollard

NY Times [Letters] - October 27, 1999

To the Editor:

Your October 21 front-page account of the "extraordinary" steps taken by the Justice Department to "enhance" the chances of clemency for imprisoned Puerto Rican nationalists is the most disturbing disclosure to date for those of us in the Jewish community who have been working to secure Presidential clemency for Jonathan Pollard.

The measures taken by high-ranking Adminstration officials on behalf of individuals who unlike Mr. Pollard, neither petitioned for clemency, nor expressed remorse for their acts that resulted in their imprisonment, truly gives us pause.

We can only pray that the Admistration will soon realize that Mr. Pollard has more than met the traditional criteria for clemency and will grant his humanitarian request soon.

(Rabbi) Raphael Butler
New York, Oct. 25, 1999

The writer is executive vice president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.