President Obama will be in office quite awhile longer but the time to tell him who to pardon on the way out is now.  It won't due to wait until his last months in office because the decisions will largely have been made by then.  Let's start a pardon and clemency list.  Put your suggestions for who should be pardoned, and why, in the comments and I'll sweep through and move all of the new suggestions, without comment, into the main thread.  Of course. we can debate the merits below.

Pardon and Clemency List

1. Piper Kerman

​Crime: Participated in drug trafficking (small player, non-violent). Convicted of felony money laundering and drug trafficking.

Punishment: 15 month prison sentence, she served 13 months. 

Why pardon her: Non-violent crime. These were acts she committed in 1993, a year out of college, while in a romantic relationship. Call it a youthful crime of passion. Sentence seems harsh for what she actually did.  After prison she wrote the memoir Orange if the New Black, a bestseller and inspiration for the hit Netflix show.  She has since become a prison reform advocate.  Given that her crime was not serious, that she actually served time (unlike Marc Rich, Scooter Libby or Richard Nixon) and that she has made important contributions to the culture both politically and artistically, she deserves a full pardon.

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Okay... your turn!

2. Edward Snowden - whistleblower, patriot.

3. Chelsea Manning - whistleblower.

4. John Kiriakou - whistleblower.  Released from prison but still convicted of exposing National Security Agency secrets for exposing Bush-era torture by CIA.