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Courtesy O. Henry Museum, Austin
William S. Porter, better known by his pen name, O. Henry, was convicted of embezzling in 1898. But the prolific American writer, especially celebrated for his short stories, is the subject of a new campaign for a posthumous presidential pardon.
A Texas activist wants big changes in the way the criminal justice system works, but he’s launching his campaign with a goal that he thinks should be easy for people to agree on — the presidential pardon of celebrated American writer O. Henry, 102 years after his death.
Scott Henson, a former investigative journalist and blogger on the criminal justice system, launched a petition drive Thursday, with the aim of delivering 10,000 signatures to President Barack Obama by Sept. 11, O. Henry’s birthday.
"This petition aims both to honor and exonerate a great American writer and to call attention to a withering and atrophied clemency process, one which no longer functions as robustly either as justice demands or America's constitutional framers intended," said Henson.
O. Henry, whose real name is William S. Porter, was convicted in 1898 of embezzling from an Austin bank where he worked as a teller.
Some historians say the trial was badly flawed and there were serious problems with the bank’s lax record keeping at the time — so Porter’s actual guilt is in question.
Porter made things worse for himself when he skipped bail and fled to Honduras. But on news that his wife was critically ill, he returned to Austin to care for her, and appear at his trial, according to a Texas history web site, Lonestar Junction.
Porter’s wife died, and he served five years in an Ohio prison, after which he stopped using his real name altogether in an effort to hide his identity. He moved to New York, where he produced some of his most acclaimed works.
But he died of alcoholism at the age of 47, nearly penniless.
Even if O. Henry was legitimately convicted of the crime, Henson says, his case is an excellent opportunity for a presidential pardon, an executive power held by governors and U.S. presidents that is exercised far less than it was half a century ago.
O. Henry published hundreds of stories, before, during and after his prison sentence, gaining fame for his detailed depictions of Texas and New York.
One of the more famous stories "The Cop and the Anthem" depicts a New York hobo named Soapy who tries repeatedly -- and fails -- to get arrested so he can be a guest of the jail. Finally, while passing by a church, Soapy is inspired to clean up his life, only to be arrested for loitering and sentenced to 3 months in jail.
The most prestigious award for American short stories is the PEN/O. Henry. There are museums that celebrate his legacy, including the O. Henry Museum in Austin, Tex. — as well as towns, schools and other buildings named after him, including the University of Texas-owned building that housed the court where Porter was convicted.
This year, the 150th birthday of O. Henry’s birth, the U.S. Postal Service is rolling out a postage stamp featuring O. Henry’s face.
When President Obama pardoned the Thanksgiving turkey in 2011, who did he quote? O. Henry.
The irony of that presidential ritual prompted Henson to write “Eat the turkey, Pardon O. Henry,” in his blog on Texas criminal justice system, "Grits for Breakfast." He then bought the domain names PardonOHenry dot-com, dot-org, and dot-net.
The petition invokes the case of O. Henry as a way of highlighting the power of presidents to restore the political rights of ex-felons, expunge criminal records, commute sentences, clear the name of someone falsely or unfairly convicted, even those of the deceased.
"Pardoning William S. Porter would signal that you understand and value the true purpose of executive clemency powers in the justice system — not just as a symbol but also a remedy for both actual innocence and unfortunate guilt,' (referring to an expression from the Federalist Papers) one that provides a healing salve even for century-old wounds," says a letter accompanying the petition to Obama.
Obama has so far been among the stingiest American presidents in exercising the powers of clemency, as recently reported by msnbc.com, but Henson says that this is merely the continuation of a trend among modern presidents.
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And posthumous pardons are extremely rare.
A recent study by Stephen Greenspan, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado, tallied posthumous pardons for 106 individuals throughout U.S. history, including 12 who were executed.
At least one previous effort to win a posthumous pardon for O. Henry in 1985 ended without success.
Another posthumous pardon request — arguably one with more symbolic heft — was rejected by the Obama administration in 2009.
In that effort, spearheaded by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the subject was black heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, who was imprisoned nearly a century ago for violation of the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for "immoral purposes." The case was seen as punishment for Johnson's unapologetic relationships with white women, and a warning to other black men.
That petition was rejected at the time by Obama’s justice officials who said that the administration did not grant posthumous pardons.
But Henson sees growing interest in the presidential pardon power — or the lack thereof. It gives Henson a "test drive" opportunity for a new lobbying organization that he is setting up to press for criminal justice reform, including greater use of clemency.
And, he’s billing a pardon of O. Henry as an easy move in the right direction.
"It’s kind of a low-risk thing for Obama, just like it’s a low-risk thing for me," said Henson. "It’s a fun campaign to be the first thing out of the gate and, meanwhile, the pardon issue is a real issue."
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Leave a Comment:
With all the problems in the world today, this is simply irrelevant.
There is virtually no way to know the man's guilt or innocence so long after the alleged deed.
There should be an award - similar to a Grammy for 'Best New Artist' - for the dumbest way to spend the American tax dollar. If the President spends one minute of his time considering this, he has spent my money!
On the other hand, when there has been a clear cut case of civil rights violations like the crime against the black man mentioned in the story, I scratch my head and wonder why Obama did nothing...? Or why hasn't another president done something before now...?
Where has our sense of morality, and right & wrong, and common sense, gone?
Just what we need, some new organization to lobby for criminals to be pardoned. This whole thing is a giant waste of time. I do not have a problem with the fact that the number of pardons has been going down. Pardons should be reserved only for those truly deserving of them, not given to those who can afford some mouthpiece to lobby for them to be forgiven for their crimes. The victims of these criminals do not get what they lost back so why should the criminals be given their good names back. Let the criminals live with the consequences of their actions for the rest of their lives the same way their victims do.
Politicians do symbolic feel-good fluff stuff all the time, so what's the BFD here?
And since O'Henry and Jack Johnson are kinda dead, that's double BFD far as the "live with the consequences of their actions for the rest of their lives" go. More so considering that with, e.g.; Jack Johnson, it was clearly just a racist prosecution by officials who just didn't like and felt threatened by some big black dude banging white women :D
If Obama issues ONE pardon, he will be condemned by the haters. Johnson (the heavyweight champ, from a century ago) was targeted at the time be cause of his color. THAT pardon would be MORE than justified! However, the haters would scream "race card", and we would have to listen to them spout nonsense until Obama's re-election! (and probably his next four years!)
Roadkill- I'm afraid what you say is far to true.
I do think that there are reasons to grant pardons beyond cases where it's an obvious miscarriage of justice. A felony conviction can mean a life time of consequences. Doesn't it make sense to reward someone who turned their life around and went on to help others or significantly benefit society in some way? Might that not encourage others to do likewise? Do we really believe that a life time of consequences is always fair for something done by an 18 or 19 year old?
Pardons and parole are always a risk. Sometimes you will be wrong. But creating a permanent criminal under-class by allowing them no opportunity to reform themselves and try to reclaim a place in society is no answer either. We already have far more people in prison per capita than any other nation. Maybe it's time to consider a different approach.
This might be a place to start.
What a waste of time, money and resources on someone dead 102 years.
As the coordinator said, this is just a first stepping stone to something he believes needs some reform. It's a good step because it's easy and it's easy because it DOESN'T hold a lot of weight in current events today. If they tried to do this with a current, high profile case, there would be a lot more political and social ramifications to the decision, including a living person's life. Not to mention, O. Henry is a literary American icon. So it'd be nice for the American president to treat him as such, especially since it IS so irrelevant to today's problems. No one remembers O. Henry as an embezzler, they remember him as a writer.
Name the Whitehouse turkey "O Henry", and then pardon the turkey at Thanksgiving. "Kill two birds with one stone."
Shouldn't that be "Pardon two birds with one stoner"?
Dear MSNBC,
Regardless of the merits of the campaign or not, I'd rather actually prefer to read the text than have an AdChoice advertisement from TD Ameritrade (with no way to close its window) block me from reading text. Can you fix that?
I'll always remember enjoying the short film of O'Henry's "Ransom of Red Chief" where two kidnappers end up turning themselves in to be rid of the troublesome boy they had taken.
Pardon O' Henry, send me the turkey.
Let the dead see to their own legacy. Whatever the truth maybe about this writer's conviction, the crime is more than a century in the past.
Unless there is very sure evidence exonerating him, let the matter rest.
Forget the pardon, forget the Turkey, I think they should name a candy bar after him. Call it the ................."Oh, Henry" bar or something like that.
What a wonderful idea. Only one thing, if it doesn't sell, and the company goes belly up, will we blame the Dumbocrats, the Repuglicans or the Tea Potty?
Nice story, Kari! I've decided to start a new tradition of reading O Henry WHILE eating my Thanksgiving turkey.
1. Baloney. The banks were not under Federal perview in 1897. If porter deserves a pardon, the governor of Texas can provide it.
2. In an era when crooked bankers have nearly destroyed America's and the world's economies, it is unwise to pardon a convicted bank embezzler. It would seem as thought the POTUS were condoning piratical bankers.
3. Besides being an embezzler, O. Henry was an egregious racist. There is no reason for an African American president to be generous to a crook who refused to be generous to African Americans when they most needed it.
you want texas gov. rick perry to do what? has he actually been able to show his face in texas after that so called "campaign" ?
feed the turkey an O henry bar, pardon the turkey, then cook the turkey anyway. then 100 years from now somebody can write about the injustice on the new msn-fox-bc website.
fr mike, re your third point " almost every white person in the US (and Canada and Europe) was an egregious racist in that era.....kind of silly to make it a reason to not pardon O. Henry for a totally unrelated crime.....
LOL Just what we need in the US, "pardon lobbiests". Now who, I wonder, could need and afford "pardon lobbiests"?
Oh what the heck, can't see any harm. Think of how much money our banks have stole from us with high interest rates. Dude is dead now, pardon the old Dude. Press on. Now: Could I get my taxes pardon for afew years. Wonder why Texas didn't push Bush Sr. or Bush Jr. on this.
President Obama--2012
I personally don't think the President should even justify that with a response. He should show he is above such foolishness by simply stating "no comment."
Do I think he will? No.
So, just beacuse he had a talent and later became famous is no reason to give him an executive pardon, He commited a crime or he would not have run away to another country. Then, he became a convicted felon who served his time. Another case of wanting to idolize the rich and/or famous. Too much of that in this country. At least he was a writer and not a movie "star" or football "hero". Still, give it a rest!
Guess you all haven't seen bank dudes stealing money from their own bank. Convicted but walks free because it's a white collar crime. Plus he's so much loved by the community as a outstanding citizen. On the plus side, it gives our prison more room for the poor dude stealing groceries for his family.
CEO Dimon, gambling and losing 5 plus billion dollars. Just another white collar thing. No one goes to jail.
He will be like former POTUS and free all his buddies who f ked up while he was in office. Lol
Scott Henson is a local buffoon who was most recently in the news for lying in his angry little blog about the Austin cops "attacking him." Once the dashcam video came out proving otherwise, he was humiliated and is now resorting to this for attention. I went to college with Scott - he was a loudmouth hypocrite then, and he doesn't deserve any attention now. Try and find some real news to report, MSNBC, and maybe research the town oafs that you present as credible writers (or whatever the hell Henson is claiming to be this month).
And why didn't he petition G.W.Bush, or the Texas GOV. (slick-Rick Perry) for that pardon? Because he knows that Perry would have him executed for being excessively ignorant in the State of Texas. Or failure to yield the right to intelligence. Let that dead criminal continue to decay in hell, Scott Henson you can kiss his ass soon enough, because that's your next stop fool.
I think Haley Barbour has ruined the public's view of executive clemency. And if he didn't Bill Clinton certainly gave it a black eye when he left office.
Wow, we should come up with some more ridiculous nonsense that makes absolutely no difference in this country. There's some stupid crap people ask for, but this has got to be the dumbest.
Henson, with ALL the serious sh-t the President has to deal with, like the corrupt Republican corporate political puppets like exlax ETCH-A-SKETCH and you have to bring up this "FUN" junk! We, the 99% American People, are tired of being the SLAVES of the Republican corporate MONARCH! So, if you don't mind, wait 'til AFTER the election to put this junk out!
Vote 100% STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, the lives you save WILL be YOURS & your CHILDREN!
Vote straight Democratic and we'll all be on welfare, holding out our hands for things we didn't earn, but no one will be there to give it to us. Boo Hoo.
Obama should just do the right thing and say.... no, I'm too busy.
Kick every RepukliCON out of office!
O Henry was a great writer, a representative of American story telling. If Obama could pardon O Henry, then I thin he should. Justice is not always served in life.
Who gives a ratsass about some guy who's been dead for a century. A pardon does him no good at this point. He has already be judged by the highest court.
Typical stupid Texan
Like we don't have real issues to focus on pro or con?
I druther have pardons gieven to live 1st time marijuana offenders currently in jail for possession.
O henery who?
I enjoyed reading O.Henry's stories when I was a high school student. Jeffery Archer's short stories are the closest I've found in comparison.