OMG, I'm going to use my entire post quota for the month in the first week! Oh well.

So, presidential pardons are always a topic at the end of a presidency. Our previous President left office with a slew of controversial last minute pardons. I believe, or at least hope, that none of Bush's will rise to the same level of controversy. I thought to create this topic based on the link to Fox News below.

Clarence Aaron
Ignacio Ramos
Jose Compean
Orenthal James "O. J." Simpson

Post people you would like to see pardoned.

Steven.

Um. No one. Pardons are totally bull**** unless they're mass ones.

David Richard Berkowitz

Oh and Steven.

Start a petition mothercuckers.

We should elect a massassi president that can pardon bans

It's too bad you there aren't presidential sentences instead.

As much as I like ragging on CM, the dictator has made his position clear. I would appreciate it if other forum members refrain from posts that will lead to the enivitable closing of this thread. I think this is a worthy topic which is why I risked even creating a thread here. I would also add that you post here on matters that are considered closed or administratively related at your own peril.

Can someone explain to me the benefits of giving the president the ability to grant pardons? I don't recall it allowing someone who was wrongfully convicted to be free.

Why would bush pardon OJ?

EDIT: Now I hovered my mouse over the link, I understand

From my link in the opening post:

"A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. It is granted by a sovereign power, such as a monarch or chief of state or a competent church authority. Clemency is an associated term, meaning the lessening of the penalty of the crime without forgiving the crime itself. The act of clemency is a reprieve. Today, pardons and reprieves are granted in many countries when individuals have demonstrated that they have fulfilled their debt to society, or are otherwise deserving (in the opinion of the pardoning official) of a pardon or reprieve. Pardons are sometimes offered to persons who, it is claimed, have been wrongfully convicted. However, accepting such a pardon implicitly constitutes an admission of guilt, so in some cases the offer is refused (cases of wrongful conviction are nowadays more often dealt with by appeal than by pardon).

Clemency is often requested by foreign governments that do not practice capital punishment when one of their citizens has been sentenced to death by a foreign nation that does practice it."

I will also add that whatever rights were stripped due to felony convictions would be restored once those crimes were pardoned.

nobody

He should pardon Roger...

He should pardon all the inmates at Guantanamo Bay

Oh wait, they were never actually charged with anything, much less convicted.

Okay then. I was more along asking what good comes out of giving the president the ability to pardon. Yes, it would help people who "fulfilled their debt to society" to get free, but there could be hundreds upon hundreds of other people who qualify under this. Seems silly to "pick and choose" when pardons are also offered at the federal level.

On the last day he's going pardon everyone involved in torture.

I think the president should have the authority to revoke previous presidents' pardons.

Ignacio Ramos & Jose Compean... thats all.

I can understand the reasoning behind that opinion but I think it is a terrible suggestion. I would think some sort of constitutional ammendment that makes presidents and former presidents accountable for pardons would be a better aproach.

How about pardons have to approved by some other branch? Senate/House or maybe the Supreme Court. Checks and balances ftw.

Well, recommendations for pardons do go through the Department of Justice.

The head of which is appointed by the president.

That does away with the purpose of the power to begin with and is, of course, unconstitutional. Your opinion should be more like some of the others here who believe the President should not have the power to begin with. I can understand that view when you look at some of the last minute pardons previous presidents and, specifically, THE previous president have made on the way out the door.

I can't think of anyone who ought to get one, but I don't really keep tabs on the who's who of federal prisons.

That's the thing. If I recall, one of the supporting reasons for the president's ability to pardon was to help people who were unfairly treated by the judicial system. Thus, to do so, it would have to be a power to sidestep the rulings of the Judicial branch because the president felt that those in charge over there weren't doing things right in these certain cases. The Legislative branch can't really get involved because it isn't their purpose to do so. So what does that leave?

Could there be a system where the President can only sign off and recommend people to be pardoned? How would it work so that presidents couldn't just grab people closest to him out of hot water?

Maybe I should send a letter to the President asking if he can wipe my recent possession charge off my record...

I know you're not talking to me but **** RIGHT OFF.

You don't get to tell people what their opinion should be.

Indeed. Besides, it's entirely legitimate to believe that the pardon power once served a useful purpose but now ought to be constrained or eliminated. There's also a perfectly constitutional (if difficult) way to make that change.

OJ needs to be pardoned so he can get back in movies.

LOL

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

Hee. That was actually quite funny. Wow, Wookie's developing a sense of humour! And a pretty good one at that!

Actually, he's already displayed signs of witty humor before this thread. He's an enigma...

What? Being a tactless moron doesn't mean you can't occasionally come up with something witty.

-sniff sniff- Ahhh, the fresh scent of agenda in the air..

He stated a fact. You need to fix your sniffer.

I've done nothing wrong...

Possession of narcotics with intent to distribute.

You'd think they'd at least notify me...

You probably missed that when you were more stoned than a Jew in Iran.

Yeah, that narrows it down.

He should pardon Himself because let's face it, he's a Great Big Villain and Everyone Knows It and it's just before a matter of time he gets Persecuted To The Full Extent of Human Law