ROBERT HORN PAPERS, 1974-75

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).