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Simple English definitions for legal terms
pardon
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A quick definition of pardon:
A pardon is when the president says someone doesn't have to be punished for something they did wrong. It's different from just making the punishment shorter. When someone gets a pardon, it's like they never did anything wrong in the first place. For example, President Trump made it so that Roger Stone didn't have to go to jail for what he did. President John F. Kennedy pardoned a bunch of people to show that a law needed to be changed.
A more thorough explanation:
A pardon is a type of executive power that exempts an individual from punishment. The President of the United States has the power to grant pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. Unlike a commutation, which reduces or eliminates a person's punishment, a pardon absolves the individual of guilt.
- President Trump commuted Roger Stone's prison sentence, which means that Mr. Stone did not have to serve the punishment for his guilty conduct.
- President John F. Kennedy pardoned all first-time offenders convicted of crimes under the Narcotics Control Act of 1956 to signal to Congress that the law needed to be changed.
The examples illustrate how a pardon can be used to exempt an individual from punishment or to signal a need for change in the law.