Clemency

Amnesty

Amnesty involves overlooking a person's actions in order to serve some greater cause. Many cities, for example, have weapons amnesty programs in which citizens can hand in weapons without having to worry about facing any legal questions from authorities regarding how they were obtained or why they were in their possession. Likewise, a citizen who observes a violent crime while committing a property crime may have his/her own transgression overlooked through amnesty in exchange for his/her willingness to cooperate regarding what he/she observed. The key facet to amnesty is [Page 269]that one individual's actions are forgiven in order to fulfill some larger mission—whether it is having someone to testify regarding a murder or to help eliminate violent weapons on the streets.

Commutation, Remission, and Reprieves

Commutation has become a popular subject in the United States in recent years because of the actions of two prominent governors. When commuting a sentence, an executive is substituting one penalty for a crime with another. The key is that the individual remains guilty; only his or her punishment changes. The governors of Illinois and New Mexico both commuted sentences for all death row inmates to life without parole over concerns with potential executions of innocent individuals.

Remission is similar to commutation and involves a complete or partial cancellation of a punishment while the offender is still legally guilty. In its most basic form, remission involves a sentence being reduced. For example, if you are supposed to serve a two-year term but prison overcrowding leads to your being released after serving eight months, you have had your sentence remitted.

Reprieves are temporary postponements of a punishment and are most frequently granted when someone is facing execution in the immediate future and needs additional time to appeal. Again, a reprieve does nothing to remove guilt from an offender.

Pardons

Of the five procedures encompassed by clemency, pardons are the most prominent historically. Pardon powers are given to both federal and state officials. The president of the United States gains his ability to pardon from Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which gives the ability to grant reprieves in pardons for any offense except in cases of impeachment. An individual seeking a pardon will address the request to the president, who will receive a nonbinding recommendation from the Office of the Pardon Attorney (housed in the Department of Justice). Likelihood for success depends on the administration, but overall has decreased since the conclusion of World War II. Franklin Roosevelt offered more pardons than any other president with 3,687. Woodrow Wilson offered the second most at 2,480.

...