President Trump has posthumously pardoned LSU legend Billy Cannon for his involvement in a counterfeiting scheme that resulted in him spending two-and-half years in prison. Billy Cannon’s daughter, Bunnie Cannon, says the family is ecstatic over the news.
“That gives us some relief, knowing that someone can overlook the counterfeiting, and can overlook all of the negative publicity that’s come out about him. And they can look and see the whole person, and the humanity in him,” Cannon said.
The 1959 Heisman Trophy winner took responsibility for the crime in which he produced fake $100 bills to pay back debt from bad real estate investments. Bunnie Cannon says her father never ran away from his mistakes.
“Whenever he did something wrong, he would own it and he taught us to do the same. And so I’m just glad that people are starting, are
beginning to see the whole person that he was,” Cannon said.
Cannon died in 2018. He’s one of five former NFL players pardoned by President Trump for crimes they committed. The presidential pardon does not wipe away Cannon’s criminal record, but it grants forgiveness. Bunnie Cannon says unfortunately there are people who like to bring up his counterfeiting conviction, but that should not define her father.
“Hopefully, we will be able to get his true story out in the way of a feature film and a documentary soon that we’re working on, and then people will see his whole life and how it came to be,” Cannon said.
After Billy Cannon served his time prison time, he returned to dentistry and in 1995 was hired as a dentist at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Not only he did work on inmates’ teeth, but he also helped offenders reform.
The other four former NFL players granted clemency are Travis Henry, Joe Klecko, Jamal Lewis and Nate Newton.