No Parole for Pollard
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA - January 23, 2000
[Source: Justice4JP]
At a parole hearing there are no outside presentations. There are no star witnesses or outside legal eagles. Nor do letters or petitions have any standing if they are not part of the official file. As a rule, the parole officials examine the file well in advance of the hearing and their decision, based on the contents of the prisoner's file, has already been made.
Jonathan Pollard's parole file contains nothing but negative recommendations from those government agencies with vested interests in keeping him in prison.
Pollard and his attorneys consulted with America's top post-conviction experts. After studying the case, and the file, and after contacting their own high-level sources in Washington, these parole experts filed a lengthy and detailed report strongly advising Jonathan Pollard against applying for parole.
The experts reported that they had learned at the highest levels of the Justice Department that should Jonathan Pollard apply for parole, the case would be adjudicated in Washington. There, they were told, the Parole Board would invariably turn down Pollard's parole request, and what is worse, they would certainly impose a 15 year set-aside rule. In other words, Jonathan Pollard would not be allowed to request another parole hearing for at least 15 more years!
The parole experts further explained that once the parole board rules that the case is untouchable for another 15 years, every President for the next 15 years will use this as the excuse for not granting executive clemency either.
To summarize:
- given the material in Pollard's parole file there is virtually no chance whatsoever that parole will be granted and
- being turned down at parole and set aside for 15 years would do irreversible damage to any chance of executive clemency in the future.
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director
IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)