2012: Further Decline in Christmas Clemency?

December has been a critical month for presidential pardons for some time. 1 of every 2 pardons granted over the last 39 years has been granted in this month alone. But, in December of 1999, an article in Christian Science Monitor suggested that, in recent years, there had been a decline in "Christmas Clemency." The article was generally based on the fact that President Clinton had gone a couple of Decembers without granting any pardons or commutations of sentence. Otherwise, no data were presented on the topic.

Using our own original data, we have calculated the total number of December pardons and commutations of sentence, by year and administration, from 1945 (Truman) to 2011 (Obama). Click on the image above and to the left.

A couple of things seem notable: First, the current record for the highest number of individual pardons granted in a single day, 204, was set by Richard Nixon in December of 1972. Second, while there is no clear linear decline in December pardons and commutations across the full 65 years of data, there are only 18 Decembers which feature zero clemency actions. However,12 of those 18 Decembers are bunched up in just the last 24 years (post-1986).  It was all coal and switches from 1989 to 1996, where 7 out of 8 Decembers were entirely merciless. While Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford (and, arguably, Jimmy Carter) were Santa's little helpers, the Grinch Award clearly has to go to George H. W. Bush. As for President Obama ...


Here are the aggregate data for each president, in chronological order:

Truman	218	Carter	267
Eisenhower	216	Reagan	175
Kennedy	24	Bush	24
Johnson	281	Clinton	161
Nixon	643	Bush	89
Ford	171	Obama	9

Here are the rankings of the presidents by total number of December pardons:

Nixon	643	Ford	171
Johnson	281	Clinton	161
Carter	267	G.W. Bush	89
Truman	218	G.H.W. Bush	24
Eisenhower	216	Kennedy	24
Reagan	175	Obama	9

Of course, some presidents served longer terms than others. So, here are the presidents ranked by average number of pardons and commutations per December:

Nixon	129	Reagan	22
Carter	67	Clinton	20
Ford	57	G.W. Bush	11
Johnson	47	Kennedy	8
Eisenhower	27	G.H.W. Bush	6
Truman	27	Obama	3