You’re playing Monopoly with your family when, all of a sudden, you end up in jail. However, there’s good news: you have a “get out of jail free” card and can leave with no repercussions.
Over 9,000 Americans have received the legal equivalent of a “get out of jail free” (or lower jail time) card in the past four years: clemency.
“Clemency is a general term for when a President or another person reduces a defendant’s sentence or grants a pardon. A pardon is the official forgiveness for a crime and stops any current or future punishment,” law teacher Mr. Alexander Mann said. “The President’s pardoning power is granted in Article II, Section II of the Constitution and may be used for an individual (or entity) accused or convicted of any federal crime.”
Sophomore and Debate Officer Katie Silvay says it was meant to keep judges in check.
“If you have a judiciary who’s just putting random people in jail, then the president can step in and say, hey, stop that,” Silvay said.
Since its inclusion in the US Constitution in 1787, many presidents have granted clemency, albeit controversially in some cases.
“There have been many famous pardons throughout history…” Mann said. “Andrew Johnson pardoning [thousands of] confederates in 1868 is one that comes to mind.”
Considered the first “preemptive” pardon, President Gerald Ford’s pardon for Former President Richard Nixon in 1974 relieved Nixon of crimes “he has committed or may have committed.” This set the precedent that someone could be pardoned without being tried for their crimes.
These controversies have continued to the present day. Former President Joe Biden gave clemency to over 8,000 people during his four-year term, setting the record for most clemency grants ever given by a president. Notably, Biden has mostly lowered peoples’ sentences (this is called commuting) and has only pardoned 80 individuals.
Included in this pardon total are several of Biden’s family members: his son Hunter Biden for crimes concerning taxes and guns, and his siblings, James Biden and Valerie Biden Owens. The latter have not been charged with any crimes; Biden stated he pardoned his siblings, among others he was close with, to prevent any future attacks on them by the Trump administration.
Biden’s last decision to pardon drew criticism from critics, but senior and Model UN Secretary General Nicholas Pizzo agrees with Biden’s actions.
“I think Biden’s pardons are actually a perfect example of what the pardon should be used for. Trump made clear during his campaign that he was going to use his presidency to punish anyone involved with the Biden family or administration… without pardons, it is indubitable that people like Hunter Biden or Anthony Fauci would be experiencing politically-motivated judicial attacks,” Pizzo said.
Others think that Biden abused his power as president by pardoning his family members who weren’t tried or committed for any crimes. This includes Co-President of Young Americans for Freedom club Evelyn Marshall.
“Biden pardoned people who hadn’t been accused of crimes, and Trump pardoned people who were convicted as a result of politically charged activities,” Marshall said. “We are now seeing pardons used as a political weapon, was this the original intent of the power of pardons?”
Silvay worries that Biden’s pardons set an immoral example for future presidents: one can be excused for their crimes in exchange for their loyalty.
“If Hunter Biden or any of the other members of the Biden family did commit any crimes, they should be tried for it,” said Silvay. “This is saying that certain people, because they align with me politically or I have connections with them, can’t be tried because I don’t want them to be tried.”
Biden isn’t the only president to grant numerous Americans clemency recently. After his inauguration on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued over 1,500 pardons to those convicted of participating in the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Some of those pardoned were also relieved of other crimes they previously committed (such as Peter Schwartz’s previous 38 convictions, including terrorist threats and domestic assault).
Currently, Trump has granted the third-highest number of pardons of any president in his current term alone (President Franklin D. Roosevelt had 2,819 pardons across 12 years, and President Harry S. Truman had 1,913 across eight years). Pizzo was alarmed by the amount of pardons Trump granted and their implications.
“For me, the pardons of the January 6th Rioters are irrefutable proof that Trump was directly involved in the planning of the attempted coup,” Pizzo said.
The controversies regarding specific pardons, both past and present, have caused many to wonder if the ability to pardon should even exist.
“The presidential pardon is such a powerful thing, so obviously it can be abused in the ways that it’s currently being abused, mostly by Trump, but also, in my opinion, Biden,” Silvay said. “I feel like [the writers of the Constitution] should have realized this, and I don’t think it should have even been in the Constitution in the first place.”
Many others see clemency as essential; it enforces the checks and balances established into the United States Constitution over 200 years ago.
“I do think they should have the power to pardon people,” Marshall said. “It gives the executive branch a check and balance against legislative and judiciary branches.”
Some see both the benefits and consequences of a pardon, but believe that the positives outweigh the potential negatives.
“I’m still in favor of the existence of the pardon,” said Pizzo. “I’d rather live in an America where some criminals could be set free unjustly than one in which anyone involved with a previous administration would be politically prosecuted.”
