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Presidential Pardon Power

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Lin Guo
THE PRESIDENT’S POWER TO PARDON
INTRODUCTION
Each Thanksgiving Day, the White House would put on a play of “presidential pardon” to ceremoniously pardon a turkey to be slaughtered. The Presidential pardon power is a great tradition of the United State government, equivalent to the privilege of the king in the United Kingdom. The founding fathers of the United States wrote the presidential pardon power into the Constitution was to enable the president to better handle emergencies and political rebellions. The presidential pardon has been used to appease political insurgencies, such as pardoning rebels at the appropriate time to restore peace. Another aim of the presidential pardon power is to achieve a balance among the executive, legislative …show more content…

The pardon power of the United Kingdom is a royal prerogative, and can be considered as the personal behavior of the king to “pardon” the guilt of the rebels. William F. Duker, The President’s Power To Pardon: A Constitutional History, 18 William and Mary L. Rev. 475, 476 (1977). In the American colonies, the king of England entrusted his pardon power to the rulers in the American colonies to allow them to use this power based on the interests of the royal family. Id. at 479. After the American War of Independence, the colonial governments were replaced by the state governments. Since the Executive branch of the colonial governments once used this pardon power, it was a logical result to transfer this power to the governors of these independent states. Meanwhile, the framers of the Constitution was immersed in the English legal tradition, and thought that it was necessary to retain or establish the pardon power. Id. at 502. Therefore, this approach was …show more content…

It is wrong to observe the practices of the American judicial system merely through a case. Basically, the judicial system of the United States is based on the principle of judicial independence. As long as there is no need for the case to overturn the original judgment and lodge an appeal, the jury’s decision and the judge’s sentence must be respected. Moreover, The Supreme Court “never has been called upon to judge the validity of an open pardon like the Nixon pardon.” William F. Duker, The President’s Power To Pardon: A Constitutional History, 18 William and Mary L. Rev. at 532. From statistical data, it can be seen that the situation of the president or governor intervening in the judicial system is extremely rare. Mira Gur-Arie and Russell Wheeler1, Judicial Independence in the United States: Current Issues and Relevant Background Information, 133

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