As he exits the governor's office, Jay Nixon could claim to be the most merciful chief executive in the state's recent history. In the past three decades, no Missouri governor has issued more pardons than Nixon's 106.
Yet Nixon commuted the sentences of just four people doing actual time in prison, and two of them were death row inmates who were spared execution but will remain in prison for life. Any legacy of mercy, then, rests almost solely his decision to take action in the face of the lengthy sentences given to two convicted pot dealers.
The first you may have heard of: Jeff Mizanskey, a small-time marijuana dealer sentenced to life in prison in 1994.…