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I never really understood WHY the president got to pardon people if the idea behind america is that nobody is above justice there. I mean i know its a LIE, but like lie better.
There are good reasons, but those reasons only exist in some utopia once in a lifetime bullshit crap, like pardoning draft dodgers for Vietnam.
Apart from that it seems its always been used for absolute bullshit
So says everyone, but WHAT ARE those reasons?
"miscarriages of justice"? but i agree that those should not be arbited by the executive
If the miscarriages of justice is proven aren't people automatically released. What does a pardon have tondo with anything here?
I didn’t even know that Carter did that. Fucking good. Drafting people into such an overtly bullshit war was straight up evil.
The purpose is, ostensibly, to prevent some form of miscarriage of justice or an over harsh sentencing. Think the guy who they tried to charge with a felony for harmlessly throwing a sandwich at a federal officer, if they had managed to convict instead of failing to even get an indictment. Or it could also be used to retroactively forgive people convicted of breaking a law that has since been overturned. Like if they decriminalize weed possession, those already convicted while the law was in place don't automatically get their sentences overturned.
But it is a power that should be rarely needed, judiciously applied, and have sensible guardrails on it. But the founders were confident that the people wouldnt elect self centered autocrats, that congress and the courts wouldn't be filled with sycophants, opportunists, and cowards, and that the public wouldn't stand for blatant corrupt uses of presidential powers. But here we are.
Frankly, if we can't stop blatantly corrupt abuse of the pardon powers or even have basic limitations on it (like no self pardons) then that power should be amended out of the constitution.
Many of the founders of the USA were themselves self centred autocrats so I’m not entirely certain that the system isn’t working exactly as intended.