US does not have full separation of powers

Sometimes I am very surprised by the news. Today, President Bush "commuted" a former White House aide's (Mr. "Scooter" Libby's) prison term. The prison time was imposed after a federal court convicted Libby of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators in the probe of the leak of the name of a CIA operative. A commutation is distinct from a pardon, which is a complete eradication of a conviction record and makes it the same as if the person has never been convicted. Bush has only commuted Libby's prison term, which means that the conviction remains on Libby's record and he must still pay a $250,000 fine. He will be on probation for two years.

I guess most of us have studied Montesquieu's (picture) Trias Politica at High School. Under this model the state is divided into branches, and each branch of the state has separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility. The normal division of branches is into the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial. In the model, it is very important the the Judicial system is completely independent, and it is totally wrong for someone in the Executive role (Bush) to overturn a verdict reached by a Court of Law. I am just surprised that in the United States the president can easily overturn a verdict by a court of law. Pure cronyism.