The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. May 15, 2012 Report: Attorney in Clarence Aaron Drug Pardon Case Withheld Vital Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New information has emerged in the case of a former college student who was denied a presidential pardon after being sentenced to three life terms for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. An investigation by Pro Publica shows the pardon attorney in the case of Clarence Aaron omitted critical information when recommending that President George W. Bush deny Aaron’s pardon request. The report found Ronald Rodgers, who remains in the post of pardon attorney under President Obama, did not disclose the fact that the prosecutor and judge in the case had advocated for Aaron to receive an immediate commutation — his only chance to avoid life behind bars. Clarence Aaron, who is African American, was in his early twenties when he was sentenced to three life terms for a nonviolent drug offense — despite the fact that he had no criminal record and did not buy, sell or supply the drugs involved. A recent investigation by Pro Publica and the Washington Post found that white applicants were nearly four times as likely to receive presidential pardons as people of color between 2001 and 2008. .