Florida bishop preaches for Pollard ahead of primary

By GIL HOFFMAN The Jerusalem Post 30 January 2012
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=255630

Bishop Chuck Leigh expresses outrage at Pollard's life sentence, calling it
"one of the saddest excesses of modern US judicial system."
By Courtesy of Justice for Jonathan Pollard

The fate of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard became an issue in Tuesday's
Republican primary in Florida on Sunday when the state's top Catholic leader
urged the candidates to push for his release.

Bishop Chuck Leigh of the Tampa-based Apostolic Catholic Church serves as
president of the board of the Florida Council of Churches. He is also on the
governing board of the National Council of Churches in Christ.

Leigh expressed outrage at the life sentence Pollard received for spying for
an ally, a crime whose median sentence is two to four years. Pollard has
already been in prison for more than 26 years.

"The case of Jonathan Pollard is one of the saddest excesses of the modern
American judicial system," Leigh told The Jerusalem Post. "In a country that
prides itself on fairness surely the punishment should fit the crime. Mr.
Pollard’s continued incarceration is cruel in the extreme. There can be no
doubt that it is clearly immoral. Mr. Pollard has already served much more
time than any reasonable court could demand."

Leigh's call on American politicians to take action for Pollard crossed
party lines, appealing to the Republican candidates in the primary and to US
President Barack Obama.

"In the name of mercy I call upon the Republican presidential hopefuls to
endorse the release of Jonathan Pollard," Leigh said. "In the name of the
Lord I call upon President Obama to take leadership and grant clemency to
Jonathan Pollard."

Former house speaker Newt Gingrich became the first candidate in the
presidential race to hint that he would free Pollard, telling CNN in a
December interview: “I am prepared to say my bias is towards clemency, and I
would like to review it. He’s been in a very long time. But we are pretty
tough about people spying on the United States.”

Two weeks later, in a meeting with the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney
said he was "open to examining" the Pollard issue.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has not made a public comment
about Pollard. He was expected to do so at a scheduled appearance at the
Boca Raton Synagogue, but he canceled that appearance and halted his
campaigning in Florida when he checked his three-year-old daughter Bella to
a Philadelphia hospital Saturday night.

The rabbi of the Boca Raton Synagogue, Efrem Goldberg, has been particularly
vocal about the need to release Pollard. He was among a group of Florida
rabbis who raised Pollard's fate with US Vice President Joseph Biden in
September.