Roy Grimes, left, gets a first look at the actual presidential pardon in his attorney Patrick Noel’s office on March 15, 2013. Grimes, despite being pardoned by President Obama, cannot collect guns in Tennessee.A law means this. Or it means that. Who says?
On the first day of last month, Roy Grimes got a call from his attorney. The president had pardoned him for a petty, 52-year-old crime.
Grimes, 72 years old, was happy. He felt redemption and shouted a couple of hallelujahs and thought about his future.
Now, though, “things aren’t as rosy as they seemed back on March 1,” Grimes said last week.
Beyond the obvious sentimental value, Grimes applied for the pardon because he wanted to collect handguns. He always loved the classic Western heroes, like Marshal Matt Dillon on “Gunsmoke.”