Former Satellite Pirate receives Presidential Pardon

[bigevil69]

President restores Tallahassee man's rights with pardon

Richard Miller treasures the rights restored to him by a presidential pardon issued Tuesday.


The 64-year-old Tallahassee man will now be able to vote. He'll be eligible to serve on juries. Anything that he'd be excluded from with a checkmark in a "felony convictions" box is now possible.

"I'm thrilled my government saw the worth of me being able to have all my rights restored. You don't cherish something until it's taken away from you," Miller said Tuesday. "We have a lot of freedoms in America, and when you get in the situation I was in you lose all those rights."

Miller was sentenced in 1993 for conspiracy to defraud the United States for selling illicit satellite-signal decoders.

"All I know is that the feds said it was illegal to watch the satellite without paying for the programming," Miller said.

The grandfather of 10, Air Force veteran and Florida State University graduate was among 19 who got pardons from President George W. Bush. Three of those were from Florida, including one granted posthumously to a Miami man who in 1948 broke the law to supply aircraft to Jews fighting in Israel's 1948 war of independence.

With this latest batch, which includes forgiveness for convictions ranging from gun and drug violations to bank and mail fraud, Bush has granted a total of 190 pardons and nine commutations. That's fewer than half as many as Presidents Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan issued during their two terms.

"Mostly what President Bush has pardoned for is white-collar crime," Miller said. "He's kind of stayed away from the violent stuff. Mine was a low-priority crime, if there is such a thing."

Miller hired a California attorney. He filled out the application, included letters of reference, submitted it to an FBI investigation and, on Tuesday, heard that his pardon was granted.

"I appreciate my country. I did something wrong and I feel like when the president pardoned me, he pardoned me on behalf of the whole country," Miller said. "I'm grateful."

Well-known names were not on Bush's holiday pardon list. There have been pushes to get Bush to pardon former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, who was convicted in 2000 with four others in a scheme to rig riverboat casino licensing; disgraced track star Marion Jones, who lied about using steroids; Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, former U.S. Border Patrol agents who were convicted of shooting a drug smuggler in 2005 and trying to cover it up; and Michael Milken, junk bond king who was convicted of securities fraud.

[coorslightly]

congrats to richard miller ! hes in the history books now .

[dal bilkoski]

nice update on bush thanks