Whenever I See a Bizarre Claim on Conservative Blogs, I Try to Independently Verify (Part 1)

 I was burned by a Breitbart.com article about an illegal alien arsonist.  I should have followed it back to its source, a well-known diet supplement fabulist.

This claim about Governor Hochul pardoning a killer turned out to appear in well-known alt-right 8/15/25 New York Times:

In early July, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York pardoned an immigrant from Laos to stave off his deportation, but unlike dozens of pardons she has granted before, the governor did not publicize this action.

The man Ms. Hochul pardoned, Somchith Vatthanavong, 52, had been convicted of manslaughter as a teenager after he admitted to fatally shooting a man in 1988 during a confrontation at a Brooklyn pool hall, arguing that he had acted in self-defense.

Mr. Vatthanavong, who had legally entered the United States as a refugee when he was a child, fleeing the aftermath of the Vietnam War, served 14 years in prison before being released in 2003. He then built a life in New York, marrying and raising two children who are U.S. citizens.

But President Trump’s return to power heightened the likelihood that Mr. Vatthanavong would be deported because of his conviction 35 years earlier. So community groups and his wife and lawyers mounted a campaign to persuade the governor’s office — through petitions, meetings and phone calls — to pardon Mr. Vatthanavong, a move that could result in his deportation order being vacated.

On July 1 — the day before Mr. Vatthanavong had a mandatory immigration appointment that his lawyers believed would lead to his arrest — Ms. Hochul signed a certificate granting him an unconditional pardon, “including offering relief from removal.”

Gov. Hochul explained why:

“One of the toughest calls a governor can make is when another person’s fate is in their hands,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement on Friday. “Unless I believe someone poses a danger, I follow what the Bible tells us: ‘Forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you.’”

Suddenly, it is okay to mix religion and government policy.  So no whining about Romans 1:24-26, right?