I ran across this the other day:K.Mooneyham wrote:
Merle Haggard had a checkered youth, but later redeemed himself. He was a good American, and incredibly influential as a country musician, may he rest in peace.
http://tasteofcountry.com/merle-haggard ... ld-reagan/Merle Haggard was pardoned by then-California Governor Ronald Reagan after a lengthy appeal process.
He’d later say he was shocked by the pardon, as he had no idea it was coming.
“They found that I was improperly convicted and had no representation because
I was poor and things of that nature,” Haggard told CMT shortly after the president’s death in 2004.