Pardon

A pardon is an official act of clemency that forgives an offense or removes some legal consequences of a conviction. Its effect depends on the issuing authority and governing law.

Executive clemency: An executive authority’s power to reduce or forgive criminal penalties. A pardon is one form of this broader power.
Amnesty: A government’s broad legal forgiveness for a defined group or class of offenses. Amnesty commonly covers groups, while pardons are often granted to individuals.
Royal prerogative of mercy: A sovereign’s traditional authority to forgive offenses or reduce punishments. Modern pardon powers in several legal systems descend from this royal authority.
Posthumous pardon: A pardon granted to a person after death. It can acknowledge injustice or remove a conviction’s lingering legal and historical consequences.
Self-pardon: A pardon issued by an officeholder to forgive that same officeholder’s offenses. Whether a U.S. president can pardon himself remains unresolved by a definitive court ruling.
Commutation of sentence: An official reduction of a criminal sentence that leaves the conviction in place. Unlike a pardon, a commutation changes punishment without necessarily forgiving the offense.
Restoration of civil rights: The legal return of rights restricted because of a criminal conviction. Some pardons restore rights, but the two acts are not always equivalent.
United States Constitution: The fundamental law establishing the structure and powers of the United States government. Its Article II grants the president federal pardon authority, with specified limits.
Presidential pardon: A pardon issued by the president of the United States for a federal offense. It is a prominent example of a pardon granted by a national executive.
Judicial review: The power of courts to assess whether government actions comply with law. Courts may be asked to decide whether a pardon exceeds constitutional or statutory limits.

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