Letter to Obama regarding pardons...

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for a very moving speech last night...you will be missed, as I am sure you know...

Before you go, I was told that you were going to issue some more pardons, as is the custom.
If I may, I would like to remind you of high profile inmates, that in my view should be pardoned. In some cases, they have spent enough time behind bars, in others it is a matter of life and death for them. It is also not right to jail whistleblowers who risked their lives and careers to try to stop illegal or bloody actions by our country.

They are, and thank you for reading this:

Leonard Peltier.
Many people believe he is innocent and was framed. Even if he is guilty which I doubt after some research into the case, he has served enough time, and should be set free.

Mumia Abou Jamal
Same thing here...Mumia has been behind bars for many many years. There is also evidence to his innocence of the crime, since most witnesses recanted their testimony.

Chelsea Manning
How can someone be given a 27 years sentence, just for blowing the whistle on a massacre perpetrated in our name, and that should never have happened? Chelsea should be pardoned and thanked, instead of monitored through suicide attempts after too much time spent in solitary confinement.

Don Siegelman
The former Governor has almost finished his time, and many say his prosecution was illegal and see him as a political prisoner of the Bush-Cheney administration. It is time to issue a pardon.

And finally, last but not least, Edward Snowden who sacrificed his career and his normal life to reveal what amounted to a huge violation of the U.S Constitution, which you and Congress have sworn to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic.

Thank you again for bearing with me. Pardoning these individuals would reinforce your legacy, and place you on the right side of History, the arc of which, in the words of Reverend Martin Luther King "bends toward justice".
And of course, thank you and your family for your service for eight years,
Respectfully,

Judy B.