Though Mr. Blanton was never charged, two of his aides were convicted of accepting payments to free prisoners. In the 1920's an Oklahoma governor, J. C. Walton, was removed from office for selling pardons. In a 1988 report on state clemency, the National Governors' Association said a study showed most states were not thorough in their investigation of pardon applications. In only a few states, the report said, did representatives of the governors even interview people who knew the prisoner before issuing a pardon. The 1988 report, the association's most recent on the subject, concluded that there were about 2,000 prison releases annually resulting from executive clemency.
Some experts say the number has likely increased since then.
But the governors' association does not have a current tally and some governors, like Mr. Bush when he was in Texas, have been reluctant to grant pardons. Last year, Mr. Bush said he was not opposed to issuing pardons. In interviews at the time, Governor Bush said he was never influenced by politics when making clemency decisions. Mr. Kobil, the Capital Law School clemency expert, said some states had tried to assure that governors had information about clemency applicants. Ohio, for example, now requires an investigation by parole officials in advance of a governor's decision.