executive clemency
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 267 U.S. 87 - Ex parte Grossman · 1925Most cited · 455 citing opinions
Executive clemency exists to afford relief from undue harshness or evident mistake in the operation or enforcement of the criminal law. To afford a remedy, it has always been thought essential in popular governments, as well as in monarchies, to vest in some other authority than the courts power to ameliorate or avoid particular criminal judgments. It is a check entrusted to the executive for special cases.
How often courts cite the case defining “executive clemency”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “executive clemency” — 452 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.