For the past five years, Carmen R. Johnson, Ph.D., has been fighting for exoneration by judges and the courts. She has gone all the way to the Supreme Court with no remedy and she is now back in the appellate court, continuing to seek justice as of August 24, 2020. Carmen stated, “Even though I am still fighting in their courts, I do not see a remedy for me. I understand the difference between exoneration and a pardon. Based on Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution, I am asking the President to look into my case and grant me a full pardon. Only the courts can decide to exonerate me and I have no faith in that system. I am not asking for forgiveness, however, I am asking the President of the United States for justice, by way of a full pardon.”
For over twenty years, Carmen had been a successful businesswoman in Maryland. She ran a for-profit business that offered credit restoration, debt negotiations, household budgeting, preparation for bankruptcy and did loans by paying off people’s debts. She reported these loans and services to the credit agencies. The non-profit taught financial literacy to the youth. She sat on countless organization boards. With one role as housing chair of the Maryland State Conference, NAACP. Carmen was investigating foreclosures that ravaged through the black community after the financial crisis of 2009. In her campaigns, she requested a moratorium on those illegal foreclosures and she even drafted bills involving lost notes. She received countless phone calls from power brokers in Maryland to stop this narrative. She was ordered to announce publicly that there were no illegal foreclosures in Maryland and she refused.