State charges included kidnapping, first-degree burglary and false imprisonment of husband of Nancy Pelosi
The man who was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for attacking the husband of Nancy Pelosi with a hammer in their California home was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole following a separate state trial.
A San Francisco jury in June found David DePape guilty of charges including aggravated kidnapping, first-degree burglary and false imprisonment of an elder.
Before issuing the sentence, Judge Harry Dorfman dismissed arguments from DePape’s attorneys that he be granted a new trial for the 2022 attack against Paul Pelosi, who was 82 years old at the time.
“It’s my intention that Mr DePape will never get out of prison, he can never be paroled,” Dorfman said while handing out the punishment.
That does not sound real. If a presidential power to pardon is unlimited except in the case of impeachment, why would that matter? Even Congress can’t stop it.
@athairmor@lemmy.world is right; presidents cannot pardon state level crimes: https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S2-C1-3-1/ALDE_00013316/
Specifically, the offense must be “against the United States”, and state level offenses are only against the respective state, not the United States.
