No Clemency for Arnholt Smith
Gov. George Deukmejian has denied clemency to convicted financier C. Arnholt Smith, meaning the 86-year-old one-time “Mr. San Diego” probably will serve the rest of his one-year jail term.
Vance Raye, the governor’s legal affairs secretary, said today that Deukmejian’s denial “closes the matter on the governor’s involvement in the case.” Smith, a confidant of former President Richard M. Nixon, was convicted in 1979 of misdemeanor income tax evasion and felony grand theft. After five years of appeals, Smith was ordered last November to serve his sentence at San Diego County’s Work Furlough Center.
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