Go in peace and sin no more...
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of hell,
But most of all because they have offended Thee, my God, Who art all good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.
FOR MORE THAN 200 years, presidents have often used their pardon powers aggressively, and sometimes in controversial ways. Occasionally, as with Donald Trump, their actions and rhetoric have raised questions among legal scholars and politicians about whether they were straying from what the founders intended.
Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, ratified in 1789, authorizes the president to grant pardons and other forms of clemency involving "offenses against the United States." The goal is to ensure more fairness in the criminal justice system and avoid abuses by prosecutors. The pardon power also was designed to "restore the tranquility of the commonwealth" and promote conciliation, wrote Alexander Hamilton, one of the nation's founders.
The history of presidential pardons, famous and infamous, is lengthy.
Here are some of the most prominent:
George Washington
The nation's first president set many precedents, including the use of pardons as a gesture of social and political reconciliation. Perhaps the most historic was his granting clemency to John Mitchell and Philip Weigel for their participation in the Whiskey Rebellion, an anti-tax movement, for which they had been convicted of treason. Washington issued a total of 16 pardons, commutations and rescissions of convictions during his eight-year presidency from 1789-1797.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt issued far more pardons and commutations than any other president, and he also served as president longer than anyone else, from 1933-1945. FDR issued 2,819 pardons, 488 commutations, and 489 other types of executive clemency for a total of 3,796 acts of legal mercy, according to the Pew Research Center. Many of these acts of clemency involved people convicted of violating Prohibition, a law designed to make it illegal to drink and sell alcoholic beverages.
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton, who served from 1993-2001, drew much criticism for two of his pardons in particular – one for his brother Roger Clinton after Roger Clinton served a year in prison for a drug conviction, and one for Clinton supporter and financier Marc Rich, who was indicted by a U.S. attorney for tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran. Clinton issued 396 pardons, 61 commutations and two other types of clemency – a total of 459, according to the Pew Research Center and other sources. Clinton also pardoned Patty Hearst on his last day in office in 2001, following up on Carter's commutation.
Harry Truman
FDR's successor served from 1945-53 and was very active in the forgiveness department, issuing 1,913 pardons, 118 commutations and 13 other forms of clemency for a total of 2,044. Among them, Truman granted pardons to 1,523 people convicted of violating the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which implemented the military draft prior to U.S. entry into World War II. Most of those pardoned by Truman for draft violations were conscientious objectors for religious reasons.
Barack Obama
Barack Obama issued 212 pardons and 1,715 commutations for a total of 1,927 acts of clemency during his eight years in office from 2009-2017, according to the Pew Research Center. These are relatively high totals. Among them was his commutation of a 35-year prison sentence given to former U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning for giving sensitive information to WikiLeaks. |
