Pardon

Pardon, in Law, is the remission of the penalty inflicted on an offender who has been tried and convicted, and is an act of grace rather than of justice. The right should be used with great discretion in rectifying an obvious miscarriage of justice, or where, through the inevitable imperfection of all laws, individual cases or offences seem to be visited with too severe a penalty. The power to grant pardons has usually in all monarchical states been regarded as the prerogative of the sovereign; in England a law of 1536 (Henry VIII.) expressly denies to any other than the king the power to pardon or remit treasons or felonies. In republican countries the people is sovereign, but the pardoning power is usually delegated to the head of the executive government for the time being. The United States constitution gives the power to the president to grant reprieves or pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment; and in all but seven of the states of the Union the same power is conferred on the governor. In Florida the pardoning power is vested in the governor, the justices of the supreme court, and attorney-general, or a major part of them; in Louisiana the governor pardons only on the recommendation of the lieutenant-governor, the attorney-general, and the presiding judge of the court which tried the case—but only the general assembly may pardon in cases of impeachment and treason; in New Hampshire and Vermont the governor exercises the power with the aid of the executive council; and in New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania there are boards of pardons—in New Jersey the board consists of the governor, the chancellor, and six judges of the court of errors and appeals. In Britain pardon may also be granted by the supreme authority of the House of Commons; Acts of Indemnity (q.v.) are practically grants of pardon. The sovereign's power of pardon is at all times limited. Thus, he cannot pardon certain offences specified by law (21 Geo. III. chap. 49, excludes the power to pardon convictions for forms of Sabbath-breaking); the king cannot pardon in a matter of private, as opposed to public, wrong, though fines may be remitted in such cases. The endurance of the penalty is said to work out a constructive pardon; and the effect of pardon, constructive or other, is to put the offender legally in the position of an innocent man, so that he may proceed at law against any one who thereafter calls him traitor or felon. But civil rights are not overridden by pardon; the injured person may recover damages from a pardoned offender. In modern times the crown's prerogative is delegated, the crown acting not personally but on the representation of the home secretary, the secretary for Scotland, and the lord-lieutenant in Ireland. The pardon is by warrant under the Great Seal, or under the sign-manual countersigned by a secretary of state. To those who have been unjustly convicted, their innocence being subsequently proved, not merely is a free pardon granted, but compensation may also be allowed (see IMPRISONMENT). A notable case of a free pardon long after the condemnation is that of the Earl of Dundonald (q.v.). See also INDULGENCE.