being released in 1997. After his release from prison, Clinton granted him a pardon in December 2000. Mel Reynolds, a Democratic Congressman from Illinois, was convicted of bank fraud, 12 counts of sexual assault of a child, obstruction of justice, and solicitation of child pornography. His sentence was commuted on the bank fraud charge and he was allowed to serve the final months under the auspices of a halfway house. Reynolds had served his entire sentence on child sex abuse charges before the commutation of the later convictions. Patty Hearst, who was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. After being isolated and threatened with death, she became supportive of their cause, making propaganda announcements for them and taking part in illegal activities. After her arrest in 1975, she was found guilty of bank robbery. Her conviction and long prison sentence were widely seen as unjust, but the procedural correctness of her trial was upheld by the courts. Hearst's sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter, and she was pardoned by President Bill Clinton. Roger Clinton, the president's brother, was pardoned for drug charges after having served the entire sentence more than a decade earlier. Roger Clinton would be charged with drunk driving and disorderly conduct in an unrelated incident within a year of the pardon. He was also briefly alleged to have been utilized in lobbying for the Braswell pardon, among others. However, no wrongdoing was uncovered. Harvey Weinig, a former Manhattan lawyer who was sentenced in 1996 to 11 years in prison for facilitating an extortion-kidnapping scheme and helping launder at least $19 million for the Cali cocaine cartel. On February 18, 2001, Bill Clinton wrote a New York Times column defending the 140 pardons. See also Second-term curse List of scandals with "-gate" suffix List of people pardoned by Bill Clinton List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States References Further reading Alschuler, Albert W. "Bill Clinton's parting pardon party." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 100.3 (2010): 1131-1168. Clinton, Bill. My Life. New York: Knopf, 2004. Eksterowicz, Anthony J., and Robert N. Roberts, "The specter of presidential pardons." White House Studies 6.4 (2006): 377-390. Erler, H. Abbie. "Executive Clemency or Bureaucratic Discretion? Two Models of the Pardons Process." Presidential Studies Quarterly 37.3 (2007): 427-448. External links Justice Undone: Clemency Decision in the Clinton White House, Report of the House