President James Madison Pardons a Man at the Unlikely Recommendation of the U.S. Attorney, Who Felt His Sentence Was a Miscarriage of Justice

In 1808 Alexander Trott was convicted by a jury in Massachusetts of knowingly passing counterfeit money and sentenced to prison. But Trott had an unlikely friend in George Blake, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. Blake attended the trial and was convinced that Trott’s sentence was a miscarriage of justice, and it seems that even the judge felt the jury had acted too harshly. In October of that year Blake took the matter up with President Jefferson himself, sending Jefferson materials to support his claim that the sentence should be reviewed and revised. Jefferson wrote back on October 17 that “However favorably the inclosed papers represent the case of Alexander Trott, yet it would be against every rule of prudence for me to undertake to revise the verdict of a jury on ex parte affidavits & recommendations. If the judges & yourself who were present at the trial think the defendant a proper object of pardon I shall be ready, on such a recommendation, to issue it. I ask the favor of your information on this subject, & salute you with esteem & respect. Th: Jefferson.”

But Jefferson had just five months left in his term, and by the time Blake was able to follow up James Madison was President. Blake was on cordial terms with Madison, and he again spoke up for Trott. Madison issued the pardon.

Document signed, Washington, June 17, 1809, declaring that “That I James Madison, President of the United States…good causes me thereunto moving, do by these presents grant to the said Alexander Trott a full, free and entire pardon…hereby remitting and releasing all pains and penalties by him incurred…” The document is countersigned by Robert Smith, Secretary of State.

This is the first time we can recall a prosecutor calling for the release of a prisoner, and surely this factor helped account for the willingness of Presidents Jefferson and Madison to issue the pardon.