FALN Terrorist Trial: 1981

Bombings, robberies, arrests, and trials associated with radical independence groups continued in the 1980s, but by the end of the decade, the crimes were becoming merely painful memories. In the mid-1990s, some of the imprisoned radicals petitioned for early release, claiming that the political motives for their crimes fell under U.S. clemency guidelines and that they had already served disproportionately long sentences. Human rights groups, church leaders, and politicians—including some prominent Puerto Rican politicians who opposed the independence movement—also joined the clemency groundswell and began to lobby the White House.

On September 8, 1999, 11 imprisoned Puerto Rican militants accepted a clemency offer from the Clinton administration and were freed after agreeing to renounce violence and submit to parole restrictions. Eight of the 11 were FALN members convicted in the February 1981 trial; Carlos Alberto Torres was not offered clemency and remained in prison.

Critics of President Clinton accused him of pandering to terrorists and hoping to gain support for his wife's planned campaign for the Senate among New York's Puerto Rican voters. Amid a political furor, Clinton responded that he made the clemency offers in consideration of the lengthy sentences already served by those convicted and on the advice of White House counsel, former president Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and others. The explanation did little to satisfy congressional critics, who demanded that the White House turn over records relating to the president's clemency decision, expecting to find evidence that Clinton had rejected FBI and Justice Department advice opposing clemency. When the White House declined to provide the documents on grounds of executive privilege, congressional Republicans responded with an official report critical of the clemency. Like other conflicts typifying the vituperative relations between Congress and the White House in the 1990s, the war of words over the matter was not resolved. The White House, however, agreed to a review of the presidential pardon system to allow the victims of such serious crimes to participate in the process directly.