Law for The Poor

Almost all federal pardon petitions are addressed to the President, who grants or denies
the request. In rare cases, the President will, of his own accord, issue a
pardon. Typically, applications for pardons are referred for review and non-binding
recommendation by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, an official of the United States
Department of Justice. The percentage of pardons and reprieves granted varies from
administration to administration; however, fewer pardons have been granted
since World War II.
State Law
The pardon power of the President extends only to an offense recognizable
under federal law. However, the governors of most of the 50 states have the power to
grant pardons or reprieves for offenses under state criminal law. In other states, that
power is committed to an appointed agency or board, or to a board and the governor in
some hybrid arrangement (in some states the agency is merged with that of the parole
board, as in the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board).
Nine states in the United States have Boards of Pardons and Paroles 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 (Board of Pardons and Parole).
On at least three occasions, state governors—George Ryan of Illinois in 2003, Toney
Anaya of New Mexico in 1986 and Martin O'Malley of Maryland in 2014—have
commuted all death sentences in their respective states prior to leaving office.
Related Concepts
These terms differ subtly from country to country, but generally:
Clemency is a general concept of amelioration of penalties, especially by action
of executive officials; the forms it may take include the following:
Amnesty: A pardon applied to a group of people rather than an individual.
President Jimmy Carter offered amnesty to anyone who had evaded the
draft. Weapon amnesties are often granted so that people can hand in
weapons to the police without any legal questions being asked as to
where they obtained them, why they had them, etc. After a civil war a
mass amnesty may be granted to absolve all participants of guilt and
"move on". Amnesties are typically applied in advance of any prosecution
for the crime.
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