Pardon

Two Baltimore-area state senators say that if neither the governor nor the governor-elect takes steps to compensate Bernard Webster, the Baltimore man released from prison last week after 20 years of wrongful incarceration, they will push for a bill that pays Webster for his time behind bars. Sens. Ralph M. Hughes and Delores G. Kelley said they expect either Gov. Parris N. Glendening or Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to pardon Webster, 40, who was convicted in 1983 of a rape that DNA testing shows he did not commit.

A City Council resolution urging Gov. Parris N. Glendening to pardon a man convicted of killing a police officer is sparking complaints from the police union, whose president wants lawmakers to publicly apologize. "I demand that the City Council take immediate action to rescind this resolution in order to avoid exposing the wounds of our Fallen Heroes," wrote Officer Gary McLhinney, the union president, in a letter to the bill's sponsor, Councilman Norman A. Handy Sr. "The actions of the City Council are so egregious."

HOUSTON -- Rejecting the unanimous recommendation of the state board of pardons and of the judge and prosecutors in the case, Texas Gov. George W. Bush has declined to pardon a Houston man who spent 12 years in prison for a rape that DNA testing later indicated he did not commit.The case, in which the forensic evidence points to the man's innocence but the victim continues to insist that he raped her, has sparked a highly unusual legal fracas and has even taken on political overtones.A lawyer for the convicted man has accused Bush, a potential Republican presidential aspirant, of bending to concerns over the political fallout of pardoning a convicted rapist, even one who prosecutors now say they believe is innocent of the crime.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush made a bold post-electio political gesture and removed a legal thorn from his own side yesterday by pardoning former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger -- a move aimed at putting a dramatic end to the six-year criminal probe of the Iran-contra scandal.His Christmas Eve pardon of Mr. Weinberger and five other Reagan administration officials immediately brought a new charge of wrongdoing against Mr. Bush himself.Lawrence E. Walsh, the chief prosecutor of the scandal, reacted to the pardons by saying the president "has now completed . . . the Iran-contra cover-up."

Now that Kirk Noble Bloodsworth has been freed from two consecutive life sentences for murder and sexual assault, will the state pay him for the nine years he spent behind bars?Mr. Bloodsworth, who was 23 when he was arrested in August 1984 and is now 32, certainly expects some compensation, although neither he nor his attorney will name a specific dollar figure.His attorney, Robert E. Morin, said he hopes the state will act in "good faith" and propose a package of money and support services, such as health care, counseling and education.

What are friends for? In Tommy Caplan's case, they're for asking questions. You'd do the same for your friends. And if one of those friends happens to be John Fife Symington III, a man seeking a presidential pardon, and the other a man in a position to provide the pardon, that's the luck of the draw. In any case, both Symington, a conservative Republican, and Bill Clinton, a pragmatic Democrat, should consider themselves lucky to count Baltimorean Caplan a loyal friend. When he gets together with chums from Gilman, where he met Symington, and Georgetown University, where he met Clinton, the chatter is about other friends, their children and the mundane matters of which long-term relationships are spun and cultivated.

MOSCOW - Amid rising ethnic tensions in the north Caucasus, thousands of protestors took to the streets of Grozny, the Chechan capital, yesterday to protest the proposed pardon of a Russian army colonel who murdered a teenage Chechen girl. Students and teachers from Chechen State University and other campuses marched and held signs demanding that Col. Yuri Budanov serve the 10-year jail term handed down by a court last year. Hundreds of police surrounded the demonstrators in Grozny's war-ravaged center, Russian television showed, but made no effort to interfere.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening has pardoned Bernard Webster, the man released from prison in November after spending 20 years incarcerated for a rape that DNA evidence proved he did not commit. The pardon is a necessary first step for the 40-year-old Baltimore man to receive financial compensation from the state. According to Maryland law, Webster can now go before the Board of Public Works and ask to be reimbursed for the damage that he suffered by spending his adult life in a medium-security prison, the Maryland Correctional Institution at Hagerstown.

A City Council resolution urging Gov. Parris N. Glendening to pardon a man convicted of killing a police officer is sparking complaints from the police union, whose president wants lawmakers to publicly apologize. "I demand that the City Council take immediate action to rescind this resolution in order to avoid exposing the wounds of our Fallen Heroes," wrote Officer Gary McLhinney, the union president, in a letter to the bill's sponsor, Councilman Norman A. Handy Sr. "The actions of the City Council are so egregious."

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced yesterday that he will grant clemency tomorrow to 12 people, including a Baltimore man who was sentenced to life for murder. Ehrlich will pardon Charles Davis, 66, who was convicted of murder in 1960, because he has been an exemplary inmate, according to a statement from the governor's office. Davis has served 44 years in prison. He has completed alcohol treatment and has had no institutional infractions for the last 24 years. Davis was intoxicated when he and another man robbed and assaulted Frank Creamer, who was then 49 years old. Creamer fell to the ground and died after hitting his head on an iron railing, according to the governor's office.