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TODAY o January 1, 2001
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Q&A
WHERE YOU LIVE: YOUR VOICE, YOUR QUESTIONS, YOUR COMMUNITY NEWS
Saeed Ahmed -Staff
Monday, January 1, 2001
Do you have a question about the news? The Journal-Constitution will try to get an answer. Call 404-222-2002 or e-mail q&a@ajc.com (include your name and city).
Q: How does President Clinton's granting of clemency to 62 people compare to other administrations? And is 62 high or low compared with Clinton's other seven years as president?
--- John Snell, Stone Mountain
A: Steve Boyd, an assistant White House press secretary, said Clinton so far has pardoned 255 people and commuted the sentences of 25 others. Those numbers pale in comparison to that of Harry Truman, who granted the most number of clemencies by any administration since 1945: 1,913 pardons and 18 commutations. Dwight Eisenhower was next with 1,110 pardons and 47 sentence commutations.
Clinton's latest round of clemency --- 59 pardons and three commutations --- brings the numbers for this year to 77 pardons and four commutations, the most in his eight years as president. And he said that he expects to issue another round of clemency before leaving office on Jan. 20.
Last year, Clinton issued 70 pardons and four commutations.
Clemency is an umbrella term meaning a merciful or lenient act by a judge, governor or president. A pardon denotes forgiveness and releases a person from the punishment of a crime. A commutation reduces a criminal penalty, such as shortening a prison term or reducing a fine.
Q: Each weekday morning, the anchors at Channel 11 talk for a minute or so with Katie Couric or Matt Lauer of the "Today" show. Is this something unique, or do Lauer and Couric give a minute to other NBC affiliates each morning as well?
--- Randy Hunt, Suwanee
A: Hosts Lauer and Couric don't talk to morning news anchors in every NBC affiliate station in the country every morning --- just the ones in what the network considers its 10 major markets, said Allison Gollust, spokeswoman for the show. Thus, in addition to Atlanta, Couric or Lauer can be seen yakking it up on the morning news broadcast that precedes their show on NBC stations in New York, Los Angeles and the other major markets.
Q: Could you please find out how one of my favorite Georgia authors, Virginia Lanier, is doing? Will there be a new book printed soon about her beloved bloodhounds?
--- Karen Hunter, Buford
A: Award-winning mystery writer Lanier, 70, continues to battle diabetes and Crohn's disease and is now in a wheelchair.
Work on her current book, "A Bloodhound to Die For," is "pretty much finished," said her editor, Carolyn Marino. However, its publication date, originally slated for August 1999, has been pushed back indefinitely as she tends to her husband, Hoss, who also is in poor health and is paralyzed.
Lanier, who took up writing on a lark at age 60 --- well into her retirement in the swampy woods of South Georgia --- has published five books featuring self-styled sleuth Jo Beth Sidden, a liberated, smart-mouthed 30-something breeder of bloodhounds.
Q: I was reading about the LaGrange police dog killed by a fugitive. What is the penalty for killing a police dog? Is it more than a misdemeanor?
--- Jim Cash, Marietta
A: Knowingly harming a police dog is a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to \$10,000, said Dana Pierce, a Cobb County police public information officer.
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