Pardons
A pardon doesn’t make someone innocent of a crime, and it doesn’t wipe the crime off the books entirely. What a pardon does do is restore the civil rights that most offenders lose after they’re convicted of crimes. After they’ve been released from prison, most ex-felons don’t have the right to vote; they can’t run for office, own guns, or serve on juries; they can generally be discriminated against in employment; and they’re subject to a host of extra restrictions that keep them from getting occupational licenses. Ex-offenders who are pardoned get those rights back.
The Constitution gives the president extremely broad authority to issue pardons for federal crimes — basically, any pardon is fair game, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of an impeachment process. Under current law, offenders are only allowed to apply for pardons five years after they have finished serving their sentences. Click here to visit National Pardon for pardon or commutation.
Commutations
Offenders currently in prison can’t apply for pardons because of the five-year rule. However, they are eligible for their sentences to be “commuted” — reduced. Getting a commutation doesn’t carry the benefits after being released from jail that a pardon does.
The two processes are independent. However, both of them are managed through the Office of the Pardon Attorney, in the Department of Justice. Collectively, pardons and commutations, and the process for receiving them, are known as “clemency.”
How do pardons work?
After offenders have been out of prison for at least five years, they are eligible to file a petition for a pardon.
That petition goes to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, which is part of the Department of Justice. The pardon attorney’s office is responsible for processing the petition and evaluating the offender’s case, considering factors like how well the applicant has behaved since being released from prison; whether the applicant shows remorse for the crime; and how badly the applicant needs the pardon for relief. Applicants can help their cases by submitting recommendations from the judge or prosecutor who originally convicted them, or from other public officials.
The pardon attorney’s office then issues a recommendation to the president about whether the petition should be approved or denied. Ultimately, however, the president makes the final decision about the pardon.
From the Carter administration through April 2014, 1,638 petitioners were granted pardons. That’s a 16 percent approval rate among all petitions processed by the Office of the Pardon Attorney. 60 percent of petitions were rejected outright; the other 24 percent were “closed without presidential action” (meaning there’s no decision because the applicant stopped responding to the Justice Department, withdrew the application, or died).
How do commutations work?
The process for a commutation (reduction of a criminal sentence) is similar to that for a pardon. But the standards are a lot stricter, so it’s a lot harder for a current prisoner to get a commutation than for an ex-prisoner to get a pardon.
The government calls a commutation an “extraordinary remedy” — applicants are supposed to demonstrate that their sentences weren’t equitable or were overly severe, or that they’re ill or elderly (and therefore unlikely to complete their sentences to begin with). Prisoners applying for commutations have to file their petitions while they’re still in prison; if they’re released before the commutation is processed, then their application is closed.
More people apply for commutations while they’re in prison than apply for pardons after they’ve been released, especially since the Clinton administration. But commutations are harder to get: from the Carter administration to April 2014, only 126 prisoners got their sentences commuted, at an approval rate of .5 percent. 74 percent of applications for commutation were rejected; the other 26 percent were closed administratively.
