From marijuana to alligator hides, Obama pardons 8

[May 21, 2011]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Friday pardoned eight people convicted of crimes ranging from conspiring to import marijuana to selling alligator hides.

The action marked the second set of pardons Obama has granted since becoming president. The first pardons, last December, went to nine people whose crimes included possessing drugs, counterfeiting and mutilating coins.

Like the earlier pardons, the latest did not involve anyone well-known. The cases date back as far as 1975, when Randy Eugene Dyer of Burien, Wash., was sentenced to serve five years in prison in the conspiracy to import marijuana and two related crimes.

Another pardon recipient was Bobby Gerald Wilson of Summerton, S.C., sentenced in 1985 to 3 1/2 months in prison for aiding and abetting the possession and sale of illegal American alligator hides.

Others who received pardons:

• Allen Edward Peratt Sr. of Sioux Falls, S.D., sentenced in 1990 to 2 1/2 years in prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.

• Christine Marie Rossiter of Lincoln, Neb., sentenced in 1992 to three years of probation for conspiring to distribute less than 110 pounds of marijuana.

• Patricia Ann Weinzatl of Prentice, Wis., sentenced in 2001 to three years of probation for structuring financial transactions to evade bank reporting requirements.

• Michael Ray Neal of Palm Coast, Fla., sentenced in 1991 to six months in prison for unauthorized decryption of satellite cable programming.

• Edwin Alan North of Wolcottville, Ind., sentenced to six months of probation for transferring a firearm without payment of tax.

• Danny Alonzo Levitz of Angola, Ind., sentenced in 1980 to two years of probation for conspiracy.

The White House, as is typically the case with every administration, offered no elaboration for the president's pardons.

[Associated Press; By PETE YOST]

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