FYI…That’s John Forte not Mumia Abu Jamal lol

Perhaps the most entertaining part of any presidency is the pardon list.  For instance among former President, Bill Clinton’s forgiveness allotment in 2001, included financier Marc Rich.  Remember the dude who bounced to Switzerland to evade charges of tax evasion and illegally making oil deals with Iran during the hostage crisis.  Real bad guy.  Rich’s name was recently resurrecting when Eric Holder, the former Justice Department official emerged as a candidate for Barack Obama’s attorney general short list. It twas believed that the two Holder and Rich may have been playing a little financial patty cake.

Anyway it turns out that As of November 24, 2008, President Der-Lect George Bush has issued 171 presidential pardons to people who have served their entire sentence, and has commuted the sentences of eight others which includes one John Edward Forte.  Forte of course is the one-time Grammy Award-winning Fugee affiliate rapper/ producer who was originally sentenced to 14 years in prison for smuggling cocaine.

Forte was bagged in 2000 at Jersey’s Newark International Airport with two briefcases filled with $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine which translated in to a conviction of possession of 31 pounds of cocke with intent to distribute.  Although Forte was a first time offender he was sentenced 14 years (the minimum.)  Weird how a cat can cold-blooded murder someone and get 8 joints while its a 14 year minimum bid for coke…anyway I digress.  Forte will be released Dec. 22 after serving seven years…yeah its been that long.  He’ll be under supervised probation for the next 5.

At first I was surprised that Forte was among those pardoned by the racist President Bush.  In most instances those pardoned are white-collar criminals convicted in very high profile cases.  Then I remembered the government is in the early holiday spirit bailing out this bank and that bank and perhaps and auto industry…why not bail a rapper out of jail while you’re at it…make it look good.  Oh and if the whole cockamamie process isn’t silly enough, Bush also pardoned Leslie Owen Collier of Charleston, Mo., who pleaded guilty in 1995 to unlawfully poisoning and killing three bald eagles.

Source: New York Times