Controversy has surrounded the issue of pardons throughout its longhistory, from God's commuting Cain's banishment, to Pontius Pilate's release ofBarabbas, to recent speculations that Oliver North would be pardoned. Pardoningpractices in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Enlightenmentvaried drastically. The Norman kings, for example, readily granted pardons,while the philosophers of the Enlightenment argued vehemently against thepractice. Montesquieu specifically stated that no pardoning power could exist ina democracy. Yet the Founding Fathers of this country granted the president analmost unlimited power to pardon, and, as a result, U.S. presidents havepardoned an average of one hundred fifty federal offenders every year since thebeginning of this century.Appearing on the eve of the fifteenth anniversary of President Ford'spardon of Richard Nixon, Kathleen Dean Moore's timely and highly readable volumeaddresses many crucial questions surrounding acts of clemency, including whatjustifies pardoning power, who should be pardoned, and the definition of anunforgivable crime.

Illustrating her arguments with rich and fascinatinghistorical examples--some scandalous or funny, others inspiring or tragic--Mooreexamines the philosophy of pardons from King James II's practice of sellingpardons for two shillings, through the debates of the Founding Fathers overpardoning power, to the Reagan Administration's record low number of pardons.Moore carefully analyzes the moral justification of pardons, discussinghow to distinguish between justifiable, even morally obligatory, cases andunjustifiable abuses of clemency power. Viewing pardons as a means forcorrecting injustices, and not as arbitrary acts of grace, she argues in favorof pardons only to make amends for the punishment of an innocent person, or of aperson who has committed a crime under mitigating or justifiable circumstances,or for anyone who has received an unfairly severe sentence.Focusing particularly on presidential pardons, Moore reveals that over andover again--after the Civil War, after Prohibition, after the Vietnam War, andafter Watergate--controversies about pardons have arisen at times whencircumstances have prevented people from thinking dispassionately about them.Her groundbreaking study concludes with recommendations for the reform ofpresidential pardoning practices.