Family Asks Pardon for Accused Soldier

[Khephra]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The family of a man accused of deserting his U.S. Army unit nearly 40 years ago has asked President Bush to pardon the North Carolina native.

Lawyer James B. Craven III mailed a petition Friday to the Justice Department on behalf of Charles Robert Jenkins' family in North Carolina, the Raleigh News and Observer reported.

Jenkins, 64, is still wanted on U.S. desertion charges. He was serving in an Army unit based on the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea when he disappeared during a routine patrol in 1965.

snip.....

Craven said Bush would have ample precedent for granting a pardon because former presidents granted executive clemency to Vietnam War resisters, soldiers who were absent without leave and those who, like Jenkins, were accused of desertion but never tried.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-nkorea-alleged-deserter,0,5743462.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

Considering Bush's war record, this situation could get sticky for the Administration.

[olddem43]

1. I can see the headline "DESERTER PARDONS DESERTER"

Won't happen.