I donÂ’t often urge that convicts be pardoned. And these days, when Wall Street crimes are in the news again, this one is probably goes against the grain of popular sentiment. But sometimes a person who has served his sentence and then engaged in exemplary civic-minded behavior ought to receive a pardon out of gratitude for his good works. And one such person is Michael Milken, the one-time junk bond king.

In the 16 years since his release from prison, disgraced junk-bond king Michael Milken has beaten prostate cancer, raised hundreds of millions of dollars for medical research and reshaped an image tarnished by a 1990 conviction for securities fraud.

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Milken. . . recovered from the disease and started a foundation that has raised more than $350 million for cancer research. He has also donated millions more for scholarship and education programs, and launched the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute, an economic think tank.

I don’t minimize Milken’s earlier misdeeds. But like Chuck Colson, we see in Milken a man who really has been changed by his experience and demonstrated that he is truly rehabilitated. He has no right to a pardon – which is, after all, a privilege extended by the president – but Milken has become the model of what we ought to want to see more of our citizen become.

Posted by: Greg at 03:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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