July 1, 2018
Press Release
Greg Walden: President Trump "seriously considering" Hammond pardon



WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Representative Greg Walden (R-Hood River) today released a statement following a phone call with President Trump regarding the pardon of Dwight and Steven Hammond:

“Late Saturday afternoon, President Trump called me to say he is 'seriously considering' pardoning Dwight and Steven Hammond. The sentencing of Dwight and Steve Hammond to five years in federal prison is unjust. Period. Federal Judge Michael Hogan agreed, when he used his discretion to apply more appropriate sentences, calling the mandatory minimum sentence for this case something that would ‘shock the conscious.' Multiple editorial boards across Oregon have concurred.

"Prosecutorial overzealousness by the federal government under the Obama Administration ignored Judge Hogan’s judicial discretion, and doubled down, forcing them to serve a mandatory minimum sentence established for terrorists.

"President Trump can right this wrong. I again strongly urged the President to administer the justice that is long overdue for these eastern Oregon ranchers by granting them a pardon so that they can get back to Harney County and their families.”

###

Today, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Grants of Clemency (Full Pardons) for Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., and his son, Steven Hammond. The Hammonds are multi-generation cattle ranchers in Oregon imprisoned in connection with a fire that leaked onto a small portion of neighboring public grazing land. The evidence at trial regarding the Hammonds’ responsibility for the fire was conflicting, and the jury acquitted them on most of the charges.

At the Hammonds’ original sentencing, the judge noted that they are respected in the community and that imposing the mandatory minimum, 5-year prison sentence would “shock the conscience” and be “grossly disproportionate to the severity” of their conduct. As a result, the judge imposed significantly lesser sentences. The previous administration, however, filed an overzealous appeal that resulted in the Hammonds being sentenced to five years in prison. This was unjust.

Dwight Hammond is now 76 years old and has served approximately three years in prison. Steven Hammond is 49 and has served approximately four years in prison. They have also paid $400,000 to the United States to settle a related civil suit. The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West. Justice is overdue for Dwight and Steven Hammond, both of whom are entirely deserving of these Grants of Executive Clemency.

President Donald Trump granted clemency today to two Oregon cattle ranchers whose case became a flashpoint in Western ranchers' bitter dispute with the federal government over land management.

The White House announced it is granting full pardons to Dwight Hammond, 76, and his son, 49-year-old Steven Hammond. The Hammonds were convicted in 2012 of committing arson on federal lands after two intentional brush fires spread from their ranch to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property.

"The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West," the White House said in a statement. "Justice is overdue for Dwight and Steven Hammond, both of whom are entirely deserving of these Grants of Executive Clemency."

According to the Hammonds, one brush fire was to clear Juniper trees from their property. The other was a "back burn" to protect their winter feed from nearby wildfires. Prosecutors claimed that the first burn was actually done to cover up an illegal deer slaughter. In any case, neither burn had been approved. In the latter fire, a county-wide burn ban was in effect, and there were firefighters in the hills above who were put at risk.

A jury acquitted the Hammonds of some charges, but they were found guilty of two counts of arson. The Hammonds then found themselves facing sentencing under the expansive provisions of the federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which carried a five-year mandatory minimum sentence.

The judge in the Hammonds' case originally sentenced the two to prison terms far below the minimum, but federal prosecutors appealed the sentence. As Reason's Jacob Sullum wrote, the case illustrates the injustices wrought by mandatory minimums:



The Hammonds were ordered back to prison in 2015. (They had already served their original sentences.) This caught the attention of Ammon Bundy, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, and his coterie of disaffected ranchers and militiamen.

Although the Hammonds had little interest in the Bundy brand of activism, Ammon Bundy and his followers organized a protest in rural Burns, Oregon, in support of the Hammonds. A small group of them then took over the headquarters of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, eventually leading to the fatal police shooting of one of the occupiers.

As J.D. Tuccille wrote for Reason at the time, the entire incident was only a small peek at the long-festering resentment between western ranchers and the federal government:



As for Ammon and Cliven Bundy, the federal case against them collapsed because of "flagrant prosecutor misconduct" by U.S. Attorneys.

And just think about it... our tax dollars are going to fund NPR...