What is the difference between clemency and commutation

Actions Facebook Tweet Email. What is the difference between a pardon and a commutation? You can read the difference below. Copyright Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. It may also be helpful in obtaining licenses, bonding, or employment. Under some — but not all — circumstances, a pardon will eliminate the legal basis for removal or deportation from the United States.

Pursuant to the Rules Governing Petitions for Executive Clemency, which are available on this website, a person is not eligible to apply for a presidential pardon until a minimum of five years has elapsed since his release from any form of confinement imposed upon him as part of a sentence for his most recent criminal conviction, whether or not that is the conviction for which he is seeking the pardon.

Moreover, in accordance with the ruling by the federal court of the District of Columbia in Lardner v. Department of Justice, F. United States Department of Justice, No. Given the frequency of such requests, the Office of the Pardon Attorney has started to proactively disclose the names of persons who have been denied executive clemency by the President on our website, in accordance with our Freedom of Information Act obligations.

Please be aware that receiving a pardon for a military offense will not change the character of a military discharge. An upgrade or other change to a military discharge may only be accomplished by action of the appropriate military authorities. To apply for a review of a military discharge, you should write to the relevant military branch, at the address listed below:.

Notwithstanding this policy, the President always retains the plenary power granted to him by the Constitution to pardon or commute sentences, and does so at his sole discretion, guided when he sees fit by the advice of the Pardon Attorney. The Privacy Act of , 5 U. A system of records is a group of records under the control of an agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifier assigned to the individual. The Privacy Act requires that agencies give the public notice of their systems of records by publication in the Federal Register.

The Privacy Act prohibits the disclosure of a record about an individual from a system of records absent the written consent of the individual, unless the disclosure is pursuant to one of twelve statutory exceptions. The Act also provides individuals with a means by which to seek access to and amendment of their records, and sets forth various agency record-keeping requirements.

Senior managers in the Office of the Pardon Attorney would only speak with or be interviewed by the media with the explicit approval of the Deputy Attorney General. The Office of Public Affairs is responsible for ensuring that the public and the media are informed about the Department's activities and about the priorities and policies of the Attorney General and the President with regard to law enforcement and legal affairs, including the Departments role in the executive clemency process.

You are here Home » Office of the Pardon Attorney. Frequently Asked Questions. President Biden is exploring the use of his clemency power for individuals on home confinement under the CARES Act for non-violent drug offenses.

Currently, the expedited screening program is only for those drug offenders on home confinement who have between 18 and 48 months remaining on their sentences. The Bureau of Prisons BOP has been asked to notify eligible offenders of the program so that they may file a petition to initiate consideration of clemency by The President. Once the clemency petition and other necessary materials are assembled and evaluated by the Pardon Attorney, the Department of Justice will make its recommendation on the clemency request to The President.

Please note that the Department of Justice will continue to consider clemency cases where an offender has a pending motion for compassionate release in any district court if the commutation petition is being considered under the parameters of the expedited screening program. The Office of the Pardon Attorney is unable to provide additional information or clarification about the expedited home confinement screening program, so additional questions should be routed to The White House Office of Public Affairs.

Responsibility for exercising the pardon power vested in the President by Article II, section 2, of the Constitution was shared by the Secretary of State and the Attorney General from The Attorney General had administrative responsibility for pardon application review, , although the Department of State continued to issue pardon warrants until a Presidential order of June 6, , transferred this function to the Department of Justice.

Pardon responsibilities were delegated to the Office of the Clerk of Pardons, established in the Office of the Attorney General by an act of March 3, 13 Stat.

The Office of the Clerk of Pardons became a component of the newly created Department of Justice, pursuant to its enabling act, June 22, 16 Stat. SEE They create no enforceable rights in persons applying for executive clemency, nor do they restrict the authority granted to the President under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. We have added links directly to the clemency petitions on the homepage of our website and they allow you to easily fill out the information directly on the form.

We respect the gender, identity, and preferences of our employees, clemency petitioners, and anyone else that we correspond with, so please make us aware of any information that would help us communicate with you more effectively, including preferred pronouns and legal name changes. We prefer email, but if you don't have access to email, you can send records to us at U. We do not accept visitors or hand delivered packages to ensure the safety of our staff. Emailing us at USPardon. Attorney usdoj.

We are a fully digital office, so mail sent by postal service or Fed Ex is going to take longer for us to process and add to your casefile. We update the Clemency Lookup Feature once per month, but it could take up to 8 weeks before your case will show up on the lookup feature. Therefore, we will not respond to requests for confirmation of receipt or status updates if your petition was submitted to us within the past 8 weeks because we deem your request premature and the only publicly available information about a pending case is already proactively disclosed through this feature of our website.

We will also refrain from providing status updates on cases that you can now use our Clemency Lookup Feature to confirm the status of. Due to longstanding policy, we will not provide any additional information about the status of a pending case, outside of what is available on our website, and we also cannot rush or expedite the President's decisionmaking process.

Under well-established procedures, this office will not process a clemency application while litigation concerning the case is pending. Clemency officials conduct a very thorough review in determining a petitioner's worthiness for relief. Accordingly, you should be prepared for a detailed inquiry into your personal and criminal background as well as current activities.

In New Jersey, the Governor has the right to grant a pardon or commutation of sentence for any crime but impeachment and treason.

Below are the categories of actions the governor has the right to take. Commutation of Sentence — A commutation of sentence is a reduction of a sentence to a lesser period of time. This may occur for some of the same reasons a pardon may be granted. Pardon — A pardon is a complete forgiveness and restores full rights of citizenship. Normally, those who have been convicted of a crime forfeit certain rights, such as to serve in certain roles, and to hold public office or vote in an election.

To refresh, a pardon is when a government executive forgives a certain criminal offense. While the offense stays on the person's criminal record, he is not subject to any further restrictions or criminal penalties that other convicts or ex-convicts may be subject to. In the case of a federal crime, a federal pardon must be granted by the President of the United States. In the case of a state crime, a state pardon must be granted by the governor, or in some states an entity such as a parole board acting on the state's behalf or in conjunction with the governor.

Those who know what a pardon is may experience some confusion when they hear about a governor or president offering clemency. What is clemency? Is it the same thing as a pardon or something different? Can it be obtained in the same way as a pardon? Read on to straighten out the distinction between pardon and clemency.