"In an unbelievable twist that even Hollywood couldn't write," mountain runner Michelino Sunseri announced on Facebook yesterday, "I woke up this morning to find out I've been given a PRESIDENTIAL PARDON from Donald J. Trump." Thus ends what Sunseri facetiously described as "the trail trial of the century"—his prosecution for taking an unauthorized route while ascending and descending Grand Teton in record time last year.
Sunseri's case attracted attention as an example of overcriminalization—in particular, the ways that general statutes authorizing criminal penalties interact with a sprawling federal regulatory code to entrap people who break the law without realizing it. That description pretty clearly applied to Sunseri, who provided the evidence that led to his prosecution by posting a map of his 13-mile Grand Teton route on social media.
