Pardon

An act of grace, proceeding from the power intrusted with the execution of the laws, which exempts the individual on whom it is bestowed from the punishment the law inflicts for a crime he has committed.

7 Pet. (U. S.) 160.

Every pardon granted to the guilty is in derogation of the law. If the pardon be equitable, the law is bad; for where legislation and the administration of the law are perfect, pardons must be a violation of the law. But, as human actions are necessarily imperfect, the pardoning power must be vested somewhere, in order to prevent injustice when it is ascertained that an error has been committed. (1) An absolute pardon is which (2) A conditional pardon is one to which a condition is annexed,, performance of which is necessary to the validity of the pardon. 1 Bailey (S. C.) 283; 10 Ark. 284; 1 Mc Cord (S. C) 176; 1 Park. Cr. Cas. (N. Y.) 47. (3) A general pardon, more properly called "amnesty" (g. v.), is one which extends to all offenders of the same kind. It may be express, as when a general declaration is made that all offenders of a certain class shall be pardoned, or implied, as in case of the repeal of a penal statute. 2- Overt. (Tenn.) 423. "The distinction between pardon, amnesty, and reprieve seems to be that pardon permanently discharges the individual designated from some or all special penal consequences of his crime, but does not affect _ the legal character of the offense committed; while ' amnesty obliterates the effect, and declares that government will not consider the thing done punishable, and hence operates in favor of all persons involved in it, whether mentioned or not; and reprieve only temporarily suspends execution of punishment, leaving the legal character of the act unchanged, and the individual subject to its consequences in time to come."

Abbott.