# why don't politicians use amnesty in an activist manner to reduce harsh prison terms? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2011, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-politicians-use-amnesty-in-an-activist-manner-to-reduce-harsh-prison-terms/566212 "2011-01-03T08:09:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-politicians-use-amnesty-in-an-activist-manner-to-reduce-harsh-prison-terms/566212/22 "2011-01-13T09:10:33Z")
You’d think there’d still be people who would do it when they are leaving office for good, if it’s just about politics. I think many politicians believe the law is inherently good. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-politicians-use-amnesty-in-an-activist-manner-to-reduce-harsh-prison-terms/566212/23 "2011-01-13T13:08:40Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > How many governors are openly for decriminalizing pot? At least one ex-governor, although he didn’t advocate it until his second term, when he was no longer eligible for re-election. > **[Gary Johnson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_E._Johnson)** > > Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He has been a member of the Libertarian Party since 2011 and was the party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections. He was also the Libertarian nominee in the 2018 U.S. Senate election in New Mexico. > Johnson entered politics for the first time by running for governor of New ... > [@BigT](#): > > You’d think there’d still be people who would do it when they are leaving office for good, if it’s just about politics. > **[Toney Anaya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toney_Anaya)** > > Toney Anaya (born April 29, 1941) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 26th governor of New Mexico from 1983 to 1987. > Anaya was born on (1941-04-29)April 29, 1941 in Moriarty, New Mexico. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor from American University's Washington College of Law in 1967. > Anaya met his wife, Elaine Anaya, in Washington D.C. during the 1960s while he was an aide to Senator Joseph Montoya and she was working for the Un... ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-politicians-use-amnesty-in-an-activist-manner-to-reduce-harsh-prison-terms/566212/24 "2011-01-13T19:27:16Z")
There’s another aspect besides “Politicans in the US don’t want to be soft on crimes”: the advocates or criminals themselves may not want it. When the justice group (a group of law students and a professor at some Northeastern University that research death penalty trials and often uncover obvious evidence of miscarriage and innocence) published several years back that about 100 sentences in one particular state were plainly wrong - that is, strong, undeniable evidence of not guilt - they wanted the governor to improve the justice system. Instead, on the last day of his office before he went into retirement, he pardoned all the criminals, which meant that the flaws in the system that caused the wrong sentences in the first way were not done away with; and because the sentence itself was not lifted as a nullification would have, the innocent people were still listed as “guilty but pardoned” instead of “wrongly charged, really innocent”. This has effects later not only on the record, but also means that they can’t press charges against the state for miscarriage of justice by gross neglience or active conspiracy (as happened in some cases, when evidence was suppressed, ignored, mislaid etc.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-politicians-use-amnesty-in-an-activist-manner-to-reduce-harsh-prison-terms/566212.md?page=1)