SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Materials on the administration of the Presidential Clemency Board covering such matters as budget/finance, personnel, training, board organization and workflow, and public comments. Documents include regulations, meeting minutes, training manuals, decision lists, and pardon recommendations.

QUANTITY
8.8 linear feet (ca. 17,600 pages)

DONOR
Robert J. Horn (accession numbers 91-38, 92-27)

ACCESS
Open. Some items are temporarily restricted under terms of Mr. Horn's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request. Advance consultation is required for some folders so that archivists may complete routine review for privacy or other restricted information.

COPYRIGHT
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain. In addition, Mr. Horn has donated to the United States of America his copyright interest in any other of his writings that might be included in this collection. The copyright interest to materials written by other individuals or organizations is presumed to remain with them.

Prepared by William McNitt, August 1991; Revised by Joshua Cochran, December 2005
[s:\bin\findaid\horn, robert - papers.doc]

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Robert J. Horn

August 23, 1943 - Born, New York, NY

1964 - B.B.A. in Public Administration, City College of New York

1967 - J.D., Fordham University Law School

1967-68 - Part-time legislative aide to Congressman Theodore R. Kupferman of New York

1968-69 - Attorney with Perrin, Nachman and Stella of New York, NY

1969-71 - Attorney, Office of General Counsel, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

1971-72 - Senior program analyst, Office of the Assistant Commissioner for Programs, Housing Production and Mortgage Credit of the Federal Housing Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development

1972-74 - Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Housing Management, Department of Housing and Urban Development

1974-75 - Executive Secretary, Presidential Clemency Board (on detail from HUD)

1976-82 - Named Special Assistant to Governor William G. Milliken of Michigan and head of the state's Washington office.

1983-01 - Director of the Washington office of Detroit Edison. He subsequently became Assistant Vice-President of Federal Affairs for DTE, and a Corporate Officer.

1987-94 - Member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council

2000 - Served as lead attorney for George W. Bush’s recount effort in Broward County, Florida.

2001 -- Attorney, partner at Patton Boggs in Washington, D.C.

INTRODUCTION

On September 16, 1974, President Gerald Ford announced the formation of the Presidential Clemency Board, charged with creating a program of conditional clemency for those accused of draft or military absence offenses during the Vietnam War. The Board, chaired by former New York Senator Charles Goodell immediately began to develop the program and hire a staff. They borrowed Robert Horn from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to serve as Executive Secretary to the Board.

According to the Board's final report, the Executive Secretary did not direct the work of the staff, but was part of what it referred to as the "Senior Staff." Horn handled administrative matters such as access lists, budget and finance, personnel matters, and office space, and was responsible for recording meeting minutes. He saw to it that Board decisions were implemented, advised the Board Chairman and the General Counsel on general matters of policy, and suggested procedures for expediting case processing and maintaining case records. Finally, he acted on behalf of the Board with staff and outside agencies when issues of a non-legal nature arose.

The Horn Papers cover the period from October 1974 to September 1975. While portions of the collection concern rules, regulations and procedures developed by Board members and staff, the bulk documents administrative matters such as budget, finance, personnel, and office space. Other documents give a sense of the final product that the board achieved, namely the case summaries, their recommendations to the President, and the decision lists. Upon the Board’s termination in September 1975, its remaining administrative duties were transferred to the U.S. Attorney General.

An initial series of the Horn Papers containing approximately 1200 pages was processed and opened in August 1991 (boxes 1-2). A subsequent accretion of papers that includes meeting minutes, pardon recommendations, decision lists, and personnel files, was processed and opened for research in December 2005 (boxes 3-17). A small portion of the accretion remains unprocessed (boxes 18-23) due to extensive privacy concerns.

Related Materials (December 2005)
The papers of Clemency Board Chairman Charles Goodell contain extensive materials on the Board and the clemency program, as do White House Central Files categories FG 6-28 (Presidential Clemency Board) and JL 1 and its subdivisions (Amnesties - Clemencies - Pardons). White House staff files containing significant documentation include those of Philip Buchen, Bobbie Kilberg, Theodore Marrs, John Marsh, and Geoffrey Shepard. A bound copy of the Clemency Board’s Final Report to the President is housed in the Library’s book collection.

The National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, MD house the records of the Presidential Clemency Board as Record Group 429.10 (RG 429.10).

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Presidential Clemency Board Subject File, 1974-75.  (Boxes 1-2, 0.6 linear feet)
Memoranda, correspondence, press releases and publications. The materials concern the operation of the Board, including rules, regulations and procedures developed by the board members and staff, and administrative matters such as budget/finance, personnel, and office space. This series was processed and opened to research in 1991. Other series were processed and opened in 2005.

Arranged alphabetically by subject.

View container list for this series

Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion, 1974-1975.  (Boxes 3-11, 3.4 linear feet)
Memoranda, correspondence, publications, and training manuals. The materials concern the operation of the board, including rules, regulations, procedures, and administrative matters such as budget/finance, personnel, training, organization, press relations, and public comments. (Note: Review of this series for opening is not yet complete, but if you contact the Library in advance of your visit, we may be able to open specific individual folders for research use.)

Arranged alphabetically by subject.

View container list for this series

Presidential Clemency Board Meeting Minutes, 1974-1975.  (Boxes 11-12, 0.4 linear feet)
Minutes of the Clemency Board’s meetings from October 1974 to September 1975. Minutes contain discussions of the board’s practices, organization, case loads, and other administrative issues.

Arranged chronologically.

View container list for this series

Presidential Clemency Board Recommendations to the President, 1974-1975.  (Boxes 12-14, 1.0 linear feet)
Memoranda, pardon lists issued by the White House, and case summaries of applicants giving details of their cases. Case summaries are anonymous and only identify applicants by case number. This series begins with the second set of recommendations from December 21, 1974. Copies of the first set of recommendations from November 25, 1974 can be found in box 6 of the Charles Goodell Papers. Many of the documents housed in this series are duplicates of those found in the White House Central Files JL series, and the Charles Goodell Papers. (Note: Review of this series for opening is not yet complete, but if you contact the Library in advance of your visit, we may be able to open specific individual folders for research use.)

Arranged chronologically.

View container list for this series

Presidential Clemency Board Decision Lists, 1974‑75.  (Boxes 15-16, 0.6 linear feet)
Worksheets, memos, and decision lists chronicling the status of applicants’ cases with regard to the PCB. Decision lists are anonymous and only identify applicants by case number. (Note: Review of this series for opening is not yet complete, but if you contact the Library in advance of your visit, we may be able to open specific individual folders for research use.)

Arranged chronologically.

View container list for this series

Presidential Clemency Board Staff Name File, 1974-1975.  (Boxes 16-17, 0.6 linear feet)
Memoranda, letters, forms, resumes, and other personnel files for PCB members and staff. (Note: Review of this series for opening is not yet complete, but if you contact the Library in advance of your visit, we may be able to open specific individual folders for research use.)

Arranged alphabetically by staff member.

View container list for this series

Presidential Clemency Board Chronological File, 1974-1975. (Boxes 18-23, 2.2 linear feet)
This series remains unprocessed and closed to research.

Audiovisual Material Transferred from the Textual Collection.

View container list for this series

CONTAINER LIST

Box 1 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File

• Access List/Passes
• American Civil Liberties Union Comments on Proposed Clemency Board Procedures and Substantive Standards
• Board Members
• Budget/Finance
• Clemency Law Reporter (1)-(2)
• Miscellaneous
• Personnel
• Precedents for Aggravating and Mitigating Factors
• Presidential Pardoning Power
• Report to the President (Publication)

Box 2 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File

• Rules, Regulations and Procedures Briefing Book, December 1974 (1)-(6)
• Space/Parking/Office/Supplies
• Submissions to the President

Box 3 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Absences Related to Vietnam Service [11/19/1974]
• Accident File
• Administrative-- Facilities and Equipment
• Affidavits
• Alternatives to Pardon [Capt. Euler Memo-10/29/74]
• Amnesty: A Brief Historical Overview [CRS Publication]
• Application Form to Clemency Program
• Application Kits
• Appointment Affidavits—Board Members
• Archives/File Management –1975
• Biographies of Board Members
• Budget
• Camp David Retreat [Sept. 2-4, 1975]
• Case Processing Steps for Clemency Board - Draft
• Case Summary Production (1)- (3)
• Changes in Clemency Board Procedures
• Clemency/Amnesty Legal Coordinating Office
• Clemency Law Reporter, Volume 1, no. 1 [6/2/75]
• Clemency Law Reporter, Volume 1, no. 2 [6/11/75]
• Clemency Law Reporter, Volume 1, no. 4 [7/2/75]
• Clemency: The President’s Program Problems [CRS publication]
• Coffee Fund and Records

Box 4 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Continuing Consequences of Offender Status
• Correspondence
• Correspondence without Return Addresses
• Dockets
• Fact Sheet
• Federal Register (1)-(2)
• Final Report—Draft (1)-(3)
• Final Report—Draft Outline [7/6/75]
• Final Report—Working Papers, Undated (1)-(4)

Box 5 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Final Report, Working Papers, Undated (5)-(6)
• Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938-- DOJ Publication
• Form Letters (1)-(2)
• Foundation Church
• Furloughed Persons
• General Accounting Office
• General Services Administration
• Goodell Assessment of PCB - Memo to President Ford
• Hearings Before the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practices [12/18/1974] (1)-(3)
• Housing and Urban Development
• Lawyers, Clients, and Ethics [publication]

Box 6 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Lawyer Referral Service
• Mailings—January 1975
• Miscellaneous
• Management Information Forms
• Marine Corps
• Master Case File
• Master List—Name Corrections
• Memo on Application of Aggravating and Mitigating Factors by the PCB [4/22/75]
• Memos—From Robert Horn (1)—(2)
• Military Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Military Cases
• National Council of Churches
• New England Journal of Prison Law—Volume 1, no. 1 [Spring 1974]
• New York County Lawyers
• Office of Management and Budget Survey Report
• OEOB—Dining Room Facility
• Organizational Charts
• Organization and Operation—ACLU Comments
• Organization and Operation—Implementation Plan (1)—(2)

Box 7 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Organization and Operation—Interagency Team Survey (1)-(2)
• Organization and Operation—National Legal Aid and Defender Association Comments
• Organization and Operation—Public Comments
• Organization and Operation—Public Law Education Institute Comments
• Organization and Operation—Washington Star article 5/27/1975
• Overview of Military Justice
• Parking Spaces
• Personnel File, PCB Staff—General (1)-(4)
• Personnel File, PCB Staff— A-D
• Personnel File, PCB Staff— E-G
• Personnel File, PCB Staff— H-J
• Personnel File, PCB Staff— K-M

Box 8 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Personnel File, PCB Staff— N-R
• Personnel File, PCB Staff— S-Z
• Photographs [transferred to AV]
• Policy Considerations Affecting Discipline/Administration Treatment of Deserters
• Presidential Clemency Board Members
• Presidential Clemency Board Performance [Lenin and Associates Memo 10/28/74 ]
• Presidential Pardons: Power and Benefits
• Presidential Photos [transferred to AV]
• Press Clippings (1)-(3)
• Professional Staffing Requirements
• Project 100,000
• Projected Clemency Actions-Flow Chart
• Proposed Case Preparation-10/28/1974
• Proposed Organizational Structural Process
• Recommendation Factors in Individual Cases
• Regulations (1)-(2)
• Report of the Interagency Team
• Report of the Interagency Team-Draft

Box 9 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Requests for Obtaining Records
• Resumes (1)-(5)
• Role of the Public Information Office
• Selective Service System—Reconciliation Service Manual (1)-(2)
• Society for Ethical Culture
• Southworth v. Gabriel and Goodell
• Speaking Engagements—AEI 5/27/1975
• Standard Operating Procedure—Record Disposal

Box 10 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Status Reports—Application Totals (1)-(2)
• Status Reports-Team Administration
• Tax Forms-Board Members—6/24/1975
• Telegrams
• Telephone Directories and Messages
• Telephone Log 11/5/1974-5/1/1975 (1)-(2)
• Temporary Secretarial Help
• Time and Attendance Records
• Training Handbook (1)-(3)
• Travel Voucher Forms [folder received empty]
• Urgent Need for DoD Marginal Performer Discharge Program-GAO Report
• War Resisters Information Center
• White House Military Aides Office
• White House Standards of Conduct (1)-(2)
• Work Copies of File Lists

Box 11 - Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Work Plan-Draft
• Worksheets—PCB
• Youth Correction Act

Box 11 (Continued) - Presidential Clemency Board Meeting Minutes

• Memos RE: Board Meetings
• October 7-8, 1974
• October 23-24, 1974
• October 30, 1974
• November 7, 1974
• November 22-23, 1974
• December 5-6, 1974
• December 12-13, 1974
• January 9-10, 1975
• February 6-8, 1975
• March 6-8, 1975
• April 3-4, 1975
• May 8-10, 1975
• May 22-24, 1975
• June 4, 6, 7, 1975
• June 13, 1975
• June 17-18, 1975
• June 23, 1975

Box 12 - Presidential Clemency Board Meeting Minutes

• June 25, 1975
• July 2, 1975
• July 3, 1975
• July 8, 1975
• July 11, 1975
• July 12, 1975 [Special Subcommittee on Alternative Service]
• July 14, 1975
• July 15, 1975
• July 25, 1975
• July 31, 1975
• August 6-8, 1975
• August 13, 1975
• August 20-21, 1975
• August 23-24, 1975
• August 28, 1975
• August 30, 1975
• August 31, 1975
• September 4, 1975
• September 8-9, 1975

Box 12 (Continued) - Presidential Clemency Board Recommendations to the President

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Second Set of Recommendations—12/21/1974
• Third Set of Recommendations—3/26/1975 (1)—(3)
• Fourth Set of Recommendations—5/5/1975 (1)-(4)

Box 13 - Presidential Clemency Board Recommendations to the President

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Fifth Set of Recommendations –5/26/1975 (1)—(3)
• Sixth Set of Recommendations- 6/27/1975 (1)-(7)
• Seventh Set of Recommendations- 7/29/1975 (1)-(3)

Box 14 - Presidential Clemency Board Recommendations to the President

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Seventh Set of Recommendations to the President—7/29/1975 (4) – (15)

Box 15 - Presidential Clemency Board Decision Lists

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Board and Panel Assignments
• Decision Forms
• October 1974
• November 1974 [analysis of tentative board decisions 11/20/1974]
• December 1974
• January 1975
• February 1975
• March 1975
• April 1975
• May 1975 (1)- (2)
• June 1975 (1) – (6)
• July 1975 (1) – (4)

Box 16 - Presidential Clemency Board Decision Lists

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• July 1975 (5)-(6)
• August 1975 (1)- (5)
• September 1975

Box 16 (Continued) - Presidential Clemency Board Staff Name File

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Adams, Ralph
• Agnich, Fred J.
• Baskir, Larry
• Broder, Neil
• Buck, Richard S.
• Chaney, Larry
• Craig, Timothy Lee
• Dickson, Kenneth W.

Box 17 - Presidential Clemency Board Staff Name File

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

• Dougovito, James
• Finch, Robert H.
• Ford, W. Antoinette
• Ford, Jeanette
• Gordon, John
• Handwerger, Gretchen
• Hawthorne, Earl
• Hesburgh, Father Theodore
• Hickman, David
• Horn, Robert [Housing and Urban Development]
• Jordan, Vernon
• Klein, Bill
• Kodak, Bob
• Lally, Francis J.
• Lohff, John
• MacQueeney, Vincent P.
• Maye, James
• Meinking, Marilyn [folder arrived empty]
• Morrow, E. Frederic
• Mott, Charlie
• Nickolas, Nia [press officer]
• O’Connor, Aida
• O’Hare, Tom (1)-(2)
• Poole, Jim
• Puller, Lewis
• Riggs, Harry
• Robinson, Barry
• Tessler, Mark
• Tropp, Richard
• Vinson, Joan [media]
• Walt, General Lewis W.
• Wells, Sally

Boxes 18-23 - Presidential Clemency Board Chronological File [Unprocessed and Closed to Research]

Audiovisual Materials Transferred from the Textual Collection

All of the items are White House photographs and are in the public domain.

Items Transferred from the Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion Series, Box 8, File: Presidential Photos

Folder	Accession Number	Description
1	1991-NLF-038 (001-003)	Official Portrait of V.P. Gerald R. Ford (G0013), 1/7/1974, 8x10 color
2	1991-NLF-038 (004-008)	First Official Portrait of President Gerald R. Ford; stamped on the back: “This is an exact reproduction of the President’s signature.” ( A0381), 8/27/1974, 8x10 color
3	1991-NLF-038 (004-009)	Ford children watching the swearing-in of Gerald R. Ford as 38th President of the United States (A0003-09A), 8/9/1974, 8x10 color

Items Transferred from the Presidential Clemency Board Subject File Accretion Series, Box 8, File: Photographs

Folder	Accession Number	Description
1	1991-NLF-038 (010-012)	Meeting of the New Appointees to the Presidential Clemency Board, (A4374-17A), 5/5/1975, 8x10 b/w
2	1991-NLF-038 (013-015)	Meeting of the New Appointees to the Presidential Clemency Board, (A4374-12A), 5/5/1975, 8x10 bw
3	1991-NLF-038 (016)	Meeting of the New Appointees to the Presidential Clemency Board, (A4374-18A), 5/5/1975, 8x10 bw
4	1991-NLF-038 (017)	Clemency Board Signing Ceremony For the First Warrants for Clemency (A2216-07), 11/29/1974, 8x10 bw