Ron DeSantis is betting that Iowans will be interested in vacating convictions for people who believe their guilt was determined by the whims of the “ruling elite.”
During remarks Sunday in Eldridge, Iowa, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate floated the idea of “clemency” for people on the right who were convicted by judges and juries that don’t share their ideological leans.
“There needs to be one standard of justice in this country. And so if somebody is prosecuted or has been convicted and they can show that they were treated (disfavorably) because they’re in a faction of society that the ruling elites don’t like, then I think they would be eligible to potentially get clemency and get some relief,” DeSantis said.
The Governor believes “the question is, is if you have a very left wing judge and a woke judge, how do you protect people against that?
“And particularly, I think when you’re in DC, because DC is a brutal, brutal jurisdiction, the jury pool is very, very left wing and it’s just not fair for a conservative to be in front of that,” DeSantis contended.
The Governor said anti-abortionists were especially victimized by juries of their peers, while civil rights activists lacked the same threshold.
“For example, you know, (Black Lives Matter) burned down cities. A lot of them didn’t even get prosecuted at all or were given a slap on the wrist,” he said. “And yet you have other people who are pro-life demonstrators or things like that and they’re just getting a ton of bricks thrown at them. So that’s a huge, huge problem when you do that.”
The Governor has blasted juries in the nation’s capital before.
He told Fox News viewers DC residents would convict a “ham sandwich” if it were Republican, adding that one potential cure would be to import jurors from across the country in cases where the Nation’s Capital were a trial venue, as will be the case when Donald Trump faces charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
“A DC jury would indict a ham sandwich and convict a ham sandwich if it was a Republican ham sandwich,” DeSantis said during an interview on an August “Faulkner Focus.“
“I think Americans need to be able to remove cases out of D.C. I think the juries are stacked. I think that they’re going to want to convict people that they disagree with. Or, at minimum, you should be able to draw a jury pool from across the entire country,” DeSantis added.
“I do, though, believe we need to enact reforms so that Americans have the right to remove cases from Washington, DC, to their home districts. Washington, DC, is a ‘swamp’ and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality.”
Washington is the venue for the trial because Trump is accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 election and the transition to the Joe Biden presidency there. The former President is accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
DeSantis has also floated “Day 1” pardons of the former President and those who participated in storming the Capitol when Congress was certifying the Presidential Election results.
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