Christmas Pardons in West Virginia

The News and Sentinel of Parkersburg enlists the state archivist to report that "while United States presidents from George Washington on have used the Christmas season as a backdrop to issue pardons, West Virginia governors do not."

"Hundreds of convicts have been issued gubernatorial pardons, but few, if any, were done in the spirit of the yuletide," the newspaper said. "Even when West Virginia had the death penalty, which was abolished by the state in 1965, a few governors commuted sentences to life, but none did so on Christmas."