Marie Ragghianti

Who is Marie Ragghianti?

Marie Fajardo Ragghianti is an American parole board administrator, famous as the whistleblower who exposed Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton's "clemency for cash" scandal in 1977-1979.

Ragghianti grew up as a beauty queen in Florida. She married a boxer. Her husband became alcoholic, and beat her. Their son nearly died from a lung infection at the age of two. They divorced, leaving Ragghianti with three young children.

In 1971, at the age of 29, Ragghianti won a scholarship to Vanderbilt University, and earned a B.S. in English literature and psychology in 1975. She was active in the Vanderbilt Young Democrats Club, and caught the attention of newly elected governor Blanton's legal counsel, T. Edward "Eddie" Sisk. She was hired as an extradition officer for the Tennessee Department of Correction from 1975 to 1976, and was appointed the chair of the Tennessee Board of Pardons and Paroles from 1976 to 1977.

Ragghianti earned an M.S. in Management of Human Services in 1978 from Vanderbilt University, and an M.P.A. from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1992. She worked as a consultant to the Tennessee Legislature in 1979.