Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: President Bush Cancels Libby's Jail Term, 07/09/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec07/commutation_7-09.html

Initiating Questions:

1. If someone is convicted of a crime what are some ways they can avoid going to jail?

2. What is a presidential pardon?

3. What do you know about the CIA leak investigation?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What did President Bush do this week in regards to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby? What did the president say?

President Bush used the power of the presidency this summer to commute the prison sentence of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was set to spend 30 months in jail for perjury and obstruction of justice.

"I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison," said the president in a written statement.

2. What was Libby's full sentence?

In early June, Libby was sentenced to the prison term, two years of supervised release -- a type of probation -- and a $250,000 fine. The probation and fine are still in place.

3. What was Mr. Libby guilty of doing?

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald investigated the leak and asked Libby about his conversations with newspaper reporters.

Libby was found guilty of lying to the FBI and the grand jury about conversations he had had with various journalists about Valerie Plame. He also was found guilty of obstructing justice in the case, meaning that his actions prevented the investigators from knowing what really happened.

4. What is a presidential pardon? What is the difference between a commutation and a pardon?

President Bush used the power outlined in the U.S. Constitution, in Article II, Section 2, which gives the president the "power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."

The commutation lessens Libby's punishment but does not forgive or excuse him of his crime like a full pardon would. He must still pay the fine and serve probation, though there is some question as to whether someone who has not served any prison time can serve probation.

5. Is President Bush expected to pardon Libby in the future?

President Bush has not ruled out the use of a pardon in Libby's case.

"As to the future, I rule nothing in or nothing out," the president said when asked about a possible pardon for Libby.

Some legal experts think a pardon would be unusual in this case.

"I think it would be hard for him to pardon him in a year-and-a-half, which is all he has left, particularly given his comments about the jury verdict today," Margaret Love, who served as the president's pardon attorney in the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1997, told the NewsHour July 3.

6. What has been the reaction to the commutation?

Reaction to the commutation fell along political party lines, with most Democrats deriding the act and most Republicans supporting it.

7. What are some other controversial pardons in U.S. history?

Some pardons have been considered controversial, such as:

• President Clinton's of Marc Rich, who had been convicted of tax evasion and whose ex-wife was a Clinton campaign contributor;
• the first President Bush, who in 1992 pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, where the members of the executive branch secretly bought weapons from Iran, which was against U.S. law, to fund the Contra rebels fighting the communist government in Nicaragua; and
• President Ford's pardon of his predecessor, President Nixon in 1974, which reportedly contributed to his unsuccessful re-election bid in 1976.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. What do you think? Did President Bush do the right thing when he commuted the sentence of Mr. Libby? Should the president grant Mr. Libby a full pardon in the future? Why or why not?

2. Why do you think the founding fathers provided the president with this right to pardon when creating the U.S. system of government during the Constitutional Convention of 1789? Who originally disagreed with this power? Why did they disagree? What did they fear?

3. Research other famous pardons or commutations from U.S. history. Choose one and explain what happened, including reaction from the public and politicians. What impact did the pardon have on the president who gave it?

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.