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A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the jurisdiction.
Pardons can be viewed as a tool to overcome miscarriage of justice, allowing a grant of freedom to someone who is believed to be wrongly convicted or subjected to an excessive penalty. The second-best theory of pardons views pardons as second-best to fair justice. Pardons can be granted in many countries when individuals are deemed to have demonstrated that they have "paid their debt to society", or are otherwise considered to be deserving of them. In some jurisdictions of some nations, accepting a pardon may implicitly constitute an admission of guilt; the offer is refused in some cases. Cases of wrongful conviction are in recent times more often dealt with by appeal rather than by pardon; however, a pardon is sometimes offered when innocence is undisputed in order to avoid the costs that are associated with a retrial. Clemency plays a critical role when capital punishment exists in a jurisdiction.
Pardons can also be a source of controversy, such as when granted in what appears to be a political favor. The arbitrariness and limited political accountability of pardons have been criticized.
In addition to the prerogative of mercy, Australia has passed legislation that creates additional avenues to seek a pardon, exoneration, reduced sentence, or conditional release.
In 2012, the Parliament of Canada passed the Safe Streets and Communities Act, which changed many elements of the criminal justice system. The Act replaced the term "pardon" with "record suspension", and the pardon system was similarly changed.
A pardon keeps the police record of a conviction separate and apart from other , and gives law-abiding citizens an opportunity to reintegrate into Canadian society.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police removes all information about the conviction for which an individual received the pardon from the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC). Federal agencies cannot give out information about the conviction without approval from the minister of public safety.
A pardon does not, however, erase the fact that an individual was convicted of a crime. The criminal record is not erased, but it is kept separate and apart from other (non-pardoned) criminal records.
A pardon removes disqualifications caused by a criminal conviction, such as the ability to contract with the federal government, or eligibility for Canadian citizenship.
If an individual in receipt of a pardon is convicted of a new offence, the information may lead to a reactivation of the criminal record for which the pardon was received in CPIC.
A pardon does not guarantee entry or visa privileges to another country. Before travelling to another country, individuals must still contact the authorities of the country in question to find out what the requirements are to enter that country.
Processing of pardons by the Parole Board of Canada generally takes six months for a summary offence and twelve months for an indictable offence. If the Parole Board proposes to deny the application, it can take 24 months to process. Retrieved on June 30, 2016
Individuals can apply for a pardon if they were convicted as an adult of a criminal offense in Canada, or of an offense under a federal act or regulation of Canada, or if they were convicted of a crime in another country and were transferred to Canada under the Transfer of Offenders Act or International Transfer of Offenders Act. Non-Canadian citizens are not eligible for a Canadian pardon unless they were convicted of a crime in Canada.
To be eligible for a pardon or record suspension, individuals must have completed all of their sentences and a waiting period.
Individuals are considered to have completed all of their sentences if they have:
Prior to 2012, following completion of all of their sentences, individuals must have completed a waiting period, as follows:
Effective 13 March 2012, the eligibility criteria and waiting periods changed:
Applicants for a record suspension must be able to show that they have completed their sentences in full and provide proof of payment.
Individuals can apply for a pardon by filling out the application forms available from the Parole Board and by paying a $50 pardon/record suspension application fee.
The later three constitutions promulgated in 1975, 1978, and 1982 all removed provision amnesty and only kept pardons. In China, pardons are decided by the National Standing Committee of the People's Congress and issued by the president.
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, all capital sentences resulted in a presidential review for a possible clemency. Executions were carried out if and only if the president rejected clemency, by signing a document on which it was written: "decides to let justice take its course".
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.
In early 2007, there was a widespread public discussion about the granting of pardons in Germany after convicted Red Army Faction terrorist Christian Klar, who was serving six consecutive sentences of life imprisonment, filed a petition for pardon. President Horst Köhler ultimately denied his request. Following a court decision, Klar was released on parole in December 2008.
For all other (and therefore the vast majority of) convicts, pardons are in the jurisdiction of the states. In some states it is granted by the respective cabinet, but in most states the state constitution vests the authority in the state prime minister. As on the federal level, the authority may be transferred. Amnesty can be granted only by federal law.
Since the transfer, the chief executive of Hong Kong now exercises the power to grant pardons and commute penalties under section 12 of article 48 Basic Law of Hong Kong. "The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall exercise the following powers and functions ... to pardon persons convicted of criminal offences or commute their penalties".
The Constitution of India vests sovereign power in the president and governors. The governance in the centre and states is carried out in the name of the president and governor respectively. The president is empowered with the power to pardon under Article 72 of the Indian Constitution, which says that the president shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence. The meaning of these terms is as follows:
The pardoning powers of the Indian president are elucidated in Art 72 of the Indian Constitution. There are five different types of pardoning which are mandated by law.
Article 72 reads:
Similarly, as per article 161, the governor of a state has the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the state extends. The president can grant a pardon to a person awarded death sentence; however, the governor of a state does not enjoy this power.
The question is whether this power to grant a pardon is absolute or this power of pardon shall be exercised by the president on the advice of the Council of Ministers. The pardoning power of the president is not absolute. It is governed by the advice of the Council of Ministers. This has not been discussed by the constitution but is the practical truth. Further, the constitution does not provide for any mechanism to question the legality of decisions of the president or governors exercising mercy jurisdiction. Nonetheless, the SC in the Epuru Sudhakar case has given a small window for judicial review of the pardon powers of the president and governors for the purpose of ruling out any arbitrariness. The court has earlier held that court has retained the power of judicial review even on a matter which has been vested by the Constitution solely in the executive.
However, it is important to note that India has a unitary legal system and there is no separate body of state law. All crimes are crimes against the Union of India. Therefore, a convention has developed that the governor's powers are exercised for only minor offenses, while requests for pardons and reprieves for major offenses and offenses committed in the union territories are deferred to the president.
Both the president and governor are bound by the advice of their respective Councils of Ministers and hence the exercise of this power is of an executive character. It is therefore subject to judicial review as held by the Supreme Court of India in the case of . It was subsequently confirmed by . In the case of , it was held that "clemency is subject to judicial review and that it cannot be dispensed as a privilege or act of grace". The court made these observation while quashing the decision of then Governor of Andhra Pradesh Sushil Kumar Shinde in commuting the sentence of a convicted Congress activist.
The power of clemency is nominally exercised by the president. However, the president of Ireland must act "on the advice" of the Government (cabinet), so in practice the clemency decisions are made by the government of the day and the president has no discretion in the matter. The responsibility can also be delegated to people or bodies other than the president.
Amnesty and immunity, on the other hand, are usually dealt with by an Act of the Oireachtas rather than by a general form of pardon or a slate of individual pardons.
There are two methods by which a pardon may proceed:
Then they can apply in writing to the minister for justice for a pardon. The minister may then "make or cause to be made such inquiries as they consider necessary" and may refuse to grant the pardon on his/her own initiative, or if they think the person should be pardoned, bring such argument to cabinet.
After the Kav 300 affair, President Chaim Herzog issued a pardon to four members of the Shin Bet prior to them being Indictment. This unusual act was the first of its kind in Israel.
The pardon may remove the punishment altogether or change its form. Unless the decree of pardon states otherwise, the pardon does not remove any incidental effects of a criminal conviction, such as a mention in a certificate of conduct (174 c.p.) or the loss of civil rights.
According to article 79 of the Italian Constitution the Parliament may grant amnesty (article 151 c.p.) and pardon (article 174 c.p.) by law deliberated a majority of two-thirds of the components. The last general pardon, discounting three years from sentences, was approved in 2006.
The right to pardon was traditionally recognized as a common practice among the sultans of the Alawi dynasty, and were only codified into the constitution by Hassan II (). This prerogative is currently used several times per year by the monarch during public holidays.
On one occasion, a pardon which was granted by Mohammed VI to Daniel Galván, a Spanish convicted child rapist, was revoked following public outrage.
According to the Portuguese Constitution,Article 134.º, paragraph f of the Constitution of Portugal the president of the Portuguese Republic has the power to pardon and commute sentences, on the proposal of the Government of the Portuguese Republic. This is the exclusive and discretionary competence of the president and is not subject to any conditions beyond the prior hearing of the Government, generally represented by the minister of justice. Requests or proposals for pardons are instructed by the Criminal Execution Court by referral from the Ministry of Justice and subsequently submitted to the president for consideration. The pardon is granted by presidential decree; if the pardon is denied, the president decides by order. Traditionally pardons are granted during the Christmas period. The pardon can be revoked by the president of the republic.
In 2019, president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa granted two pardons. "Presidente da República concede dois indultos 'por razões humanitárias", 24 February 2020
The pardon, as an individual, shall not be confused with amnesty or generic forgiveness, both of a general and abstract nature. Amnesty has retroactive effects, affecting not only the penalty applied but the past criminal act itself, which is forgotten, considered as not practiced (retroactive abolition of crime). Generic forgiveness focuses only on the penalties determined by the sentencing decision and for the future. It is the reserved competence of the Portuguese Parliament to approve generic amnesties and pardons.Article 161.º, paragraph f) of the Constitution of Portugal
A pardon can be requested at any time, although a one-year waiting period is required between requests. Указ Президента РФ от 28 декабря 2001 г. № 1500 «О комиссиях по вопросам помилования на территориях субъектов Российской Федерации»; «Положение о порядке рассмотрения ходатайств о помиловании в Российской Федерации». This right is granted to citizens of the Russian Federation by Article 50 of the constitution.
The Regulation on the Procedure for Considering Requests for Pardon in the Russian Federation, which was approved by Executive Order No.787, states that a pardon may be granted to the following individuals:
As of 2023, Russia had pardoned over 5,000 convicts after they completed contracts with Wagner Group, a mercenary group, to fight in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group's founder, offered thousands of inmates clemency in exchange for fighting in the most dangerous theaters of the war. The program is no longer in effect as of 2024.
To pardon a person is to forgive a person for his/her deeds. The pardon process is therefore not available to persons who maintain their innocence and is not an advanced form of appeal procedure.
Pardon is only granted for minor offences after a period of ten years has elapsed since the relevant conviction.
For many serious offences (for example if the relevant court viewed the offence in such a serious light that direct imprisonment was imposed) pardon will not be granted even if more than ten years have elapsed since the conviction.
The procedure and requirements for the grant of the pardon are given by the Law of 18 June 1870, modified by Law 1/1988 of 14 January. The application for royal pardon has to be carried out by the convicted person himself, his relatives or any other person in his name. The convicting court will then issue a report of the case, which shall be considered along with the public comments of the prosecutor and the victims of the crime if there were any. All of this is gathered by the minister of justice, who will present the pardon issue to the Cabinet of Ministers. If the Cabinet decides a pardon should be granted, then the minister of justice will recommend as such to the king. Pardons are issued by royal decree and have to be published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado ("Public Journal").
Pardons are not commonly conceded in Spain but for offenders convicted for minor crimes who are about to complete their sentence and have shown good behaviour and repentance. Dating back to medieval times, several organisations and religious brotherhoods still hold the right of granting pardons as part of some privilege or other granted to them by the king of Spain. The scope of this privilege depends on the royal charter received by the organisation when their right to concede pardons was granted, though it usually holds only for minor offenses in very especial conditions; this right is implicitly acknowledged by the public offices nowadays, though it is not exercised but following the usual procedure for royal pardons. Traditionally, they will propose some petty criminal about to end his sentence for pardon being granted to him, and he/she will be released following the tradition to which the pardon holds, usually during the Holy Week. This type of pardons are distinguished from the usual ones in that they only release the prisoner from jail, halting the sentence, but do not pardon the offense itself.
Additionally, the parliament of Turkey has the power to announce general amnesty.
In constitutional terms, under the doctrine of the rule of law, the power of ministers to overrule the judiciary by commuting criminal sanctions imposed resolves different and sometimes conflicting public interests. In civil matters, only the legislative branch, and not ministers, have the power to override the judiciary.
The Indemnity and Oblivion Act 1660 was a general pardon for everyone who had committed crimes during the English Civil War and Interregnum with some exceptions for and serious crimes.
Until the nineteenth century, for many crimes the sentence was mandatory and was formally pronounced in court immediately upon conviction, but judges and ministers were given powers to exercise the royal prerogative of mercy out of court, in order to mitigate the rigour of the law. Before there was any general form of criminal appeal, a judge might grant a pardon either by way of clemency, because he felt in his opinion that the law was unduly harsh (for example, in the case of convictions of minors), that the verdict was dubious, to seek public approval, or it was otherwise in the public interest. Capital sentences imposed by the assizes were generally executed when the assize was concluded and as the circuit judge left the town, so there was a limited window of time to apply to a judge or directly to the Crown for a pardon. Especially for assizes that were far away from the then capital and major cities of London, York, Durham, Edinburgh, or Dublin, a pardon might well arrive too late. Perhaps as a form of temporary punishment, to give solace, to avoid public disorder, to consult or obtain further evidence, or to maximise the public approval of the King's mercy, judges often did not grant their pardons until their departures; the convict often hoped until his last moments that the sentence of death would not actually be executed, and it was generally popular for a reprieve to arrive at the scaffold at the very moment of the execution.In a 1655 case during the Commonwealth, a Roundhead judge rode from Cornwall to London and returned with Lord Protector Cromwell's pardon for the Royalist rebel William Wake whom he had himself sentenced to death; Wake had taken a beating for him when they were schoolboys together at Westminster School twenty years before. Budgell, Spectator No. 313. Thursday, February 28, 1712.
Conditional pardons were granted to many in the 18th century, in return for transportation to British colonies overseas for life in lieu, especially to the Australia.
The first known general pardon in post-Conquest England was issued during the celebrations at the coronation of King Edward III in 1327. In 2006, all British Armed Forces soldiers who were executed for cowardice during the First World War were given a statutory pardon by an Act of Parliament (the Armed Forces Act 2006), following a long-running controversy about the justice of their executions.
Today the sovereign only grants pardons upon the advice of their ministers: currently they are the Lord Chancellor, for England and Wales; the First Minister of Scotland; or the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State for Defence is responsible for military cases. It is the standard policy of the government to only grant pardons to those who are considered "morally" innocent of the offence, as opposed to those who may have been wrongly convicted by a misapplication of the law. Pardons are generally no longer issued prior to a conviction, but only after the conviction. The royal prerogative of mercy is now rarely used, given that the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission are now avenues to statutory remedies against miscarriages of justice.
Therefore, the grant of pardons is now very rare occurrence indeed, and the vast majority of acknowledged miscarriages of justice were decided upon by the courts. During the Birmingham Six case, Home Secretary Douglas Hurd stressed that he could only make the decision for a pardon if he was "convinced of their innocence", which at the time he was not.
One recent case was that of two drug smugglers, John Haase and Paul Bennett. They were pardoned in July 1996 from their sentences of imprisonment both of 18 years, having served some ten months, on the advice of Home Secretary Michael Howard. This was intended as a reward for their information given to the authorities, but there were speculations as to the motives of the Home Secretary. In 2008 they were sentenced to imprisonment for 20 and 22 years, respectively, after subsequent discovery that the information they gave was unreliable.
In 1980, after the courts had dismissed their appeals, the Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, used the royal prerogative of mercy to free David Cooper and Michael McMahon from their imprisonment, both having been convicted of murder on poor evidence.
Under the Act of Settlement 1701, a pardon cannot prevent a person from being impeached by Parliament, but a pardon may commute any penalties imposed for the conviction. In England and Wales no person may be pardoned for an offence under Section 11 of the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 (unlawfully transporting prisoners out of England and Wales).
The pardon power of the president applies only to convictions under federal law. Additionally, the power extends to military court-martial cases as well as convictions in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Almost all pardon petitions are addressed to the president, who grants or denies the request. In some cases, the president will, of their own accord, issue a pardon. Since the 19th century, applications for pardons have been referred for review and non-binding recommendation by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, an official of the United States Department of Justice.
Nine states in the United States have Parole board that exclusively grant all state pardons. These states are: Alabama (Board of Pardons and Paroles), Connecticut (Board of Pardons and Paroles), Georgia (Board of Pardons and Paroles), Idaho (Commission of Pardons and Paroles), Minnesota (Board of Pardons), Nebraska (Board of Pardons), Nevada (Board of Pardon Commissioners), South Carolina (Board of Probation, Parole and Pardon), and Utah (Utah Board of Pardons and Parole).
On at least four occasions, state governorsToney Anaya of New Mexico in 1986, George Ryan of Illinois in 2003, Martin O'Malley of Maryland in 2014, and Kate Brown of Oregon in 2022have commuted all death sentences in their respective states prior to leaving office.
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