During the seven years I spent portraying President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet on The West Wing, I developed deep respect for the presidency and the monumental challenges its real-life officeholders confront every day. Recent news about President Biden’s exercise of his clemency power has drawn my memory to one of the most difficult “decisions” I made as President Bartlet—one that has stayed in my mind over the ensuing years—to deny clemency to a federal prisoner and allow his execution to proceed. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Both my fictional White House staff and the viewing public recognized at the time that this was not President Bartlet’s finest hour.