Pardon Protest

* I read “Prosecutor Quits Over Boss’ Role in Pardon” (March 5) with mixed reactions. I became aware of L.A.’s U.S. Atty. Alejandro Mayorkas when his office prosecuted Peter McWilliams for allegedly conspiring to distribute marijuana to cannabis clubs--clubs that legally sell marijuana under state law to the severely ill.

McWilliams was a friend, an AIDS and cancer victim and author of many wonderful best-selling books. Peter died last year a short time after his resources ran out defending himself and medical marijuana from the legal onslaught of Mayorkas’ office.

I was angry reading that the same man whose official resources destroyed Peter and his wonderful work had supported a pardon for Carlos Vignali, a convicted cocaine dealer. Then my optimistic nature took over and I thought that perhaps Mayorkas, as an insider to our government’s war on drugs, realized the tremendous damage that war has caused so many.

I’ll probably never know if Mayorkas’ phone call supporting the drug dealer’s pardon was an act of momentary insight--realizing the destructiveness of our country’s war on drugs--or simple hypocrisy. STEVEN MARKOFF

Pacific Palisades

*

* I almost fell off my chair reading about Duncan DeVille’s resignation to protest his boss’ efforts to gain a Clinton dial-for-dollars pardon. DeVille’s protest is practically subversive in the cesspool of cynicism, self-interest and ideological correctness of both Democratic and Republican Party hacks. DeVille has struck a small blow, not only at the drug trade but at an equal evil: an electoral system that is less of a contest of beliefs than an auction.

JOHN YARD

Sunland