Petition Calls for Clemency for Ex-Detroit Mayor Serving 28 Years in Corruption Scandal

DETROIT, MI — Supporters of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is serving up to 28 years in a federal penitentiary in Oklahoma after his 2013 conviction on racketeering charges, want President Obama to pardon Kirkpatrick before he leaves office in January so the former mayor can become a mentor to young politicians — on what not to do.

Kilpatrick, 46, who is serving one of the longest sentences ever handed down in a corruption case, was convicted in 2013 of using his position as Detroit mayor and, before that as a Michigan state representative, in a far-flung racketeering conspiracy case. Also convicted after a five-month trial was Kilpatrick’s friend Bobby Ferguson, 47, a former city contractor.

Obama has already approved a fistful of commutations, mostly of drug offenders sentenced to long prison terms under mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

There’s no indication he has plans to give clemency to Kirkpatrick, once a rising Democratic politician like Obama. The two met in 2007 when Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois at the time, met with then-mayor Kilpatrick to ask for his endorsement in his first campaign for the White House.

Their relationship soured a year later, when Obama called on Kilpatrick to step down as the allegations against him piled up. In his memoir, Kilpatrick wrote that he “hated on” Obama as he watched election coverage from his jail cell in 2008, and asked God, “Why? Why him and not me?”

Kirkpatrick will be eligible for parole in 2037 and, if he completes the full sentence, will be released from prison in 2041. A Change.org petition calling for his early release is gaining momentum, though. The petition, posted by an unidentified Detroit native writing as “The People for the Release of Kwame Kilpatrick,” had garnered nearly 17,000 supporters by mid-afternoon Monday.

The petitioner, writing in the first person in a letter to Obama, noted that Kilpatrick should pay for his role in the Detroit City Hall corruption scandal but said 28 years is “just too excessive” and that Kilpatrick “gave the city hope again” after decades of decline due to soaring labor costs, white flight and constrictions in the auto industry.

“We are not talking about a career criminal,” the author wrote. “We are talking about a man with multiple degrees who rose to mayor in one of the major cities in the country when he could have fled the ruins of Detroit and taken his talents to Washington or the private sector.

“Instead he took the rains [sic] of a sinking ship and did a better job than anyone could have expected,” the author wrote, taking a line from Obama’s presidential campaigns and referencing his rise in politics: “I plead with you to support change for Kwame. This is yet another extremely intelligent black man that we are going to allow to rot away in prison.”

If released, the author said, Kilpatrick should spend his time working for the state and city “to educate young politicians on the slippery slope of corruption” which the author said causes “every” elected official to walk “a tight rope in between what is considered politics and what is considered racketeering and corruption.”

“Pull Kwame out of prison and let him use his mind, his heart and his voice to shield other young politicians, black men and women away from the unfortunate trap he fell into,” the author wrote. “Yes people were hurt, yes people were mad but I have forgiven him and others will as well. Everyone deserves a second chance and I believe the City of the Detroit will be a better place with OUR Son out of prison and back home doing the work to rebuild his family, city and his reputation.”

The petitioner said Kilpatrick is “too smart to be in prison and it is a disservice and an atrocity to lock him away for that long.”

The writer claimed that Kilpatrick’s wife and children are “barely surviving” and are “being watched and hunted down by the government for any money or help they receive.”

“It's wrong and it needs to be made right,” the individual wrote, pointing out that when Obama announced a series of commutations of the past several months, he cited excessive prison sentences.

Many expected Kilpatrick to lead the Motor City out of economic despair, but in the end, the corruption of the flashy “hip-hop” mayor’s administration helped speed Detroit toward bankruptcy, federal prosecutors said at his 2013 trial.

Kilpatrick was indicted in 2010 on federal corruption charges that included allegations of bid-rigging and extortion. Prosecutors also alleged Bobby W. Ferguson, a city contractor and friend of the ex-mayor, received $73 million worth of city contracts as a result of an extortion scheme involving Kilpatrick, netting a $9.6 million profit.

One of the prosecutors, Mark Chutkow, said the two were involved in a vast enterprise that involved an “astonishing” amount of crime that “had a huge impact on the city.”

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds, who sentenced Kilpatrick to the full 28 years prosecutors had requested, said the punishment should serve as a warning to other politicians.

“That way of business is over,” Edmunds said. “We’re done. We’re moving forward.”

Family and friends of Kirkpatrick asked Obama to pardon him last spring. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Kilpatrick’s appeal, announcing its decision not to review the case without comment. The president visited the El Reno, Oklahoma, prison where Kilpatrick is serving his sentence, in July 2015, but didn't see the former mayor.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade’s office did not immediately respond to Patch’s request for comment.

According to Whitehouse.gov, the president has commuted the sentences of 872 people since taking office. This year alone, he has commuted sentences for 688 inmates, more than the previous 11 presidents combined, and the most ever granted in a single year.

Photo by Dave Hogg via Flickr Commons