Bush deviated from his usual practice of submitting commutations for review by career lawyers at DOJ. From the
Washington Post:
"For the first time in his presidency, Bush commuted a sentence without running requests through lawyers at the Justice Department, White House officials said."
And then there is this from the
Miami Herald:
"Bush ignored the usual process for commutations, which calls for the Justice Department to review the case after the felon reports to prison. The department's guidelines say that commuting a sentence is 'an extraordinary remedy that is rarely granted.'"
