Pardon

"Clemency" redirects here. For the town, see Clemency, Luxembourg. For the German magazine, see pardon (magazine).

A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. It is granted by a sovereign power, such as a monarch or chief of state. Clemency is an associated term, meaning the lessening of the penalty of the crime without forgiving the crime itself. The act of clemency is a reprieve. Today, pardons and reprieves are granted in many countries when individuals have demonstrated that they have fulfilled their debt to society, or are otherwise deserving (in the opinion of the pardoning official) of a pardon or reprieve. Pardons are sometimes offered to persons who, it is claimed, have been wrongfully convicted. However, accepting such a pardon implicitly constitutes an admission of guilt, so in some cases the offer is refused.

Contents

1 Pardons and clemency in the United States
2 Pardons and clemency in Canada

2.1 Pardons
2.2 Pardon application
2.3 Clemency

3 Pardons and clemency in the United Kingdom
4 Pardons and clemency in France
5 Pardons in Germany
6 Pardons in Italy
7 Pardons in Ireland
8 Pardons in Russia
9 Pardon in Christianity
10 External links

Pardons and clemency in the United States

In the United States, the pardon power for Federal crimes is granted to the President by the United States Constitution, Art. II, Sec. 2, which states that the President:

shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

All federal pardon petitions are addressed to the President who grants or denies the request. Typically, applications for pardons are referred for review and non-binding recommendation by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, an official of the Department of Justice. Since 1977, presidents have received about 600 pardon or clemency petitions a year and have granted around ten percent of these, although the percentage of pardons and reprieves granted varies from administration to administration (fewer pardons have been granted since World War II than historically had been the case). In order for a pardon to be granted, those who are pardoned usually must admit guilt.

The presidential power of pardons and commutations was controversial from the outset; many Anti-Federalists remembered examples of royal abuses of the pardon power in Europe, and warned that the same would happen in the new republic. However, Alexander Hamilton makes a strong defense of the pardon power in The Federalist Papers. It is worthy of note that Hamilton called for something like an elective monarch at the Constitutional Convention. President George Washington granted the first high-profile Federal pardon to leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion.

Many pardons have been controversial; critics argue that pardons have been used more often for the sake of political expediency than to correct judicial error. One of the more famous, recent pardons was granted by President Gerald Ford to former President Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974, for official misconduct which gave rise to the Watergate scandal. Polls showed a majority of Americans disapproved of the pardon and Ford's public-approval ratings tumbled afterward. He was then narrowly defeated in the presidential campaign, two years later. Other controversial uses of the pardon power include Andrew Johnson's sweeping pardons of thousands of former Confederate officials and military personnel after the American Civil War, Jimmy Carter's grant of amnesty to Vietnam-era draft evaders, George H. W. Bush's pardons of six Reagan administration officials accused and/or convicted in connection with the Iran-Contra affair, and Bill Clinton's pardons of convicted FALN terrorists and 140 people on his last day in office - including millionaire fugitive Marc Rich.

A presidential pardon may be granted at any time after commission of the offense; the pardoned person need not have been convicted or even formally charged with a crime. In the overwhelming majority of cases, however, the Pardon Attorney will consider only petitions from persons who have completed their sentences and, in addition, have demonstrated their ability to lead a responsible and productive life for a significant period after conviction or release from confinement. Federal courts have held that the President may make a pardon or reprieve conditional, and that a person who is granted such a pardon or reprieve cannot refuse it, but must accept and comply with its conditions.

The pardon power of the President extends only to offenses cognizable under U.S. Federal law. However, the governors of most states have the power to grant pardons or reprieves for offenses under state criminal law. In other states, that power is committed to an appointed agency or board, or to a board and the governor in some hybrid arrangement.

Pardons and clemency in Canada

Pardons

In Canada, pardons are considered by the National Parole Board under the Criminal Records Act, the Criminal Code and several other laws. For Criminal Code crimes there is a three-year waiting period for summary offences, and a five-year waiting period for indictable offences. The waiting period commences after the sentence is completed.

Pardon application

Completing a Canadian pardon application is a complex and time-consuming process, and any error in the application may cause needless and costly delays. Although unnecessary for the completion of the application, many people use private agencies to process their documents to ensure that there are no errors.

The cost of obtaining a pardon is variable and depends on a number of circumstances unique to each application:

$50 National Parole Board Fee for the processing of the pardon
$0 to $20.00 per Court document, payable to the Courts
$0 to $26.75 for fingerprinting services by the applicant's local police or authorized fingerprinting agent
$0 to $70.00 per local police check (payable to the local police) for each town/city the applicant has lived in over the past 5 years
Agency fees (if an agency is used) are in addition to the above

Processing time for each application depends on whether it qualifies as an emergency. For regular applications, the typical process can take a year or two, or more. Emergency Pardons are difficult to obtain, and are evalutated on a case-by-case basis by the National Parole Board. Once pardoned, a criminal records search for that individual reveals "no record".

Clemency

In Canada, clemency is granted by the Governor-General of Canada or the Governor in Council (the federal cabinet) under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy. Applications are also made to the National Parole Board, as in pardons, but clemency may involve the commutation of a sentence, or the remission of all or part of the sentence, a respite from the sentence (for a medical condition) or a relief from a prohibition (e.g., to allow someone to drive that has been prohibited from driving).

Pardons and clemency in the United Kingdom

The power to grant pardons and reprieves is a royal prerogative of mercy of the monarch of the United Kingdom. It was traditionally in the absolute power of the monarch to pardon and release an individual who had been convicted of a crime from that conviction and its intended penalty. Pardons were granted to many in the 18th century on condition that the convicted felons accept transportation overseas, such as to Australia. The first General Pardon in England was issued in celebration of the coronation of Edward III in 1327.

There are significant procedural differences in the royal pardon's use today, however.

Pardons and clemency in France

Pardons and acts of clemency (grâces) are granted by the President of France, who, ultimately, is the sole judge of the propriety of the measure. The convicted person sends a request for pardon to the President of the Republic. The prosecutor of the court that pronounced the verdict reports on the case, and the case goes to the Ministry of Justice's directorate of criminal affairs and pardons for further consideration.

If granted, the decree of pardon is signed by the President, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and possibly other ministers involved in the consideration of the case. It is not published in the Journal Officiel.

The decree may spare the applicant from serving the balance of his or her sentence, or commute the sentence to a lesser one. It does not suppress the right for the victim of the crime to obtain compensation for the damages it suffered, and does not erase the condemnation from the criminal record.

When the death penalty was in force in France, almost all capital sentences resulted in a presidential review for a possible pardon. Sentenced criminals were routinely given a sufficient delay before execution so that their requests for pardons could be examined. If granted, clemency would usually entail a commutation to a life sentence.

The Parliament of France, on occasions, grants amnesty. This is a different concept and procedure from that described above, although the phrase "presidential amnesty" (amnistie présidentielle) is sometimes pejoratively applied to some acts of parliament traditionally voted upon after a presidential election, granting amnesty for minor crimes.

Pardons in Germany

The right to grant pardon in Germany lies in the office of the President (Bundespräsident), but he or she can transfer this power to other persons, such as the chancellor or the minister of justice. Amnesty can be granted only by federal law.

Pardons in Italy

In Italy the President of the Republic can “ ... grant pardons, or commute punishments ...”, art. 87 of the Italian constitution. However, “ ... no acts of the President can came into force unless they are signed also by the Minister they are proposed by ... ”, art. 89 of the Italian Constitution. Concerning to the pardon, the proposing Minister must be the Minister of Justice, as we can understand by reading art 681 c.p.p. . The problem, at this moment, is related to the exact interpretation of the two articles of the Italian Constitution reminded above: do all of the acts of the President need a proposal and a sign of a Minister? or there are some acts that the President can take by himself, without any conditioning?. In other words, there are three different theories about the pardon in Italy:

President can take the pardon decree without any conditioning, and the Minister of Justice is obliged to sign the act.
President and Minister of Justice must agree to take the decree.
President is obliged to take the decree, simply by signing the Minister's proposal.

The problem has been examined by the Constitutional Court of Italy, that ruled that the first theory is the correct one (the Minister of Justice is obliged to sign the act).

The Minister of Justice, nowadays, aided by his offices, collects informations about the condemned to make a correct pardon pourpose. With the pardon decree, President can either extingush the punishment, or change kind of punishment in another one permitted by law. Pardon, unless is said otherwise in the decreet, can't remove all the effects of a penal sentence (like the mention in the certificate of conduct), in fact, it extinguishes only the main punishment (prision or pecuniary sanction), 174 c.p..

Pardons in Ireland

Under the Constitution of Ireland Art 13 Sec 6 the President of Ireland can pardon convicted criminals "The right of pardon and the power to commute or remit punishment imposed by any court exercising criminal jurisdiction are hereby vested in the President, but such power of commutation or remission may also be conferred by law on other authorities". However this is only after the consent of the Government of Ireland has been granted. The President cannot pardon people without the Government's consent; to do so would spark a constitutional crisis that may lead to the impeachment of the president.

Pardons in Russia

The President of the Russian Federation is granted the right of pardon by Article 89 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The Pardon Committee manages lists of people eligible for pardon and directs them to the President for signing. While President Boris Yeltsin frequently used the institute of pardon, his successor Vladimir Putin was much more hesitant; in the recent years, he has not used pardon at all.

Pardon in Christianity

In Christian theology, a pardon is the result of forgiveness, extended by God through Jesus. A pardoned person is forgiven their sins, and thus experiences new birth, or is born again. For more information, see:

External links

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