Opinion ID: 1354899
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: amnesties.

Text: In England, only Parliament had the right to grant amnesties, sometimes referred to as general pardons. All pardons of treason or felony are to be made by the king, and in his name only. . . . General pardons are by act of parliament.. . . Edward Coke, Institutes of the Laws of England 233. The king could only issue pardons within his prerogatives or with the consent and approval of parliament. Max Radin, Legislative Pardons: Another View, 27 Cal. L.Rev. 387, 391-92 (1939). Nevertheless, the broad language of Article II of the United States Constitution has been held to include the power to grant amnesties. United States v. Klein, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 128, 147, 20 L.Ed. 519 (1871). That however, does not deprive Congress of the concurrent right to grant amnesties. Brown v. Walker, 161 U.S. 591, 601, 16 S.Ct. 644, 648, 40 L.Ed. 819 (1896). [Amnesty and pardon] are of different character and have different purposes. The one overlooks offense; the other remits punishment. The first is usually addressed to crimes against the sovereignty of the state, to political offenses, forgiveness being deemed more expedient for the public welfare than prosecution and punishment. The second condones infractions of the peace of the state. Amnesty is usually general, addressed to classes or even communities,-a legislative act, or under legislation, constitutional or statutory,-the act of the supreme magistrate. Burdick, 236 U.S. at 94-95, 35 S.Ct. at 270-71. Amnesties are general pardons given to relieve an entire class of citizens and are frequently granted for political offenses. Boudin, supra, at 2 n. 13; Black's Law Dictionary 83 (7th ed.1999). Presidential amnesties have generally been granted to reward wartime service or to forgive insurrection. To show how rarely and how specially executive amnesties have been granted, consider the following list of all twenty-nine presidential amnesties granted in the history of the United States, by and to whom granted, and the nature of the action (all but the last are listed in Vol. 118, Cong. Record S9256 (daily ed. June 13, 1972)): July 10, 1795, Washington; whiskey Insurrectionists (several hundred); general pardon to all who agree to obey the law thereafter. May 21, 1800, J. Adams; Pennsylvania Insurrectionists; prosecution of participants ended; pardon not extended to those indicted or convicted. Oct. 15, 1807, Jefferson; deserters given full pardon if they surrendered within four months. Feb. 7, 1812, Oct. 8, 1812, June 14, 1814, Madison; deserters given full pardon if they surrendered within four months. Feb. 6, 1815, Madison; Barrataria pirates (Jean Lafitte's men) who fought in War of 1812 pardoned of all previous acts of piracy for which any suits, indictments, or prosecutions were initiated. June 12, 1830, Jackson (War Department); deserters, with provisions: (1) those in confinement returned to duty; (2) those at large under sentence of death discharged, never again to be enlisted. Feb. 14, 1862, Lincoln (War Department); political prisoners paroled. Mar. 10, 1863, Lincoln; deserters restored to regiments without punishment, except forfeiture of pay during absence. Dec. 8, 1863, Lincoln; full pardon to all implicated in or participating in the existing rebellion with exceptions and subject to oath. Feb. 26, 1864, Lincoln (War Department); deserters' sentences mitigated, some restored to duty. Mar. 26, 1864, Lincoln (clarification of Dec. 8, 1863, proclamation). Mar. 11, 1865, Lincoln; deserters who return to post in sixty days, as required by Congress. May 29, 1865, A. Johnson; certain rebels of Confederate States (qualified). July 3, 1866, A. Johnson (War Department); deserters returned to duty without punishment except forfeiture of pay. Sept. 7, 1867, A. Johnson; rebels  additional amnesty including all but certain officers of the Confederacy on condition of an oath. July 4, 1868, A. Johnson; full pardon to all participants in the late rebellion except those indicted for treason or felony. Dec. 25, 1868, A. Johnson; all rebels of Confederate States (universal and unconditional). Jan. 4, 1893, B. Harrison; Mormons (Church of the Latter Day Saints); liability for polygamy amnestied. Sept. 25, 1894, Cleveland; Mormons  in accord with above. July 4, 1902, T. Roosevelt; Philippine Insurrectionists; full pardon and amnesty to all who took an oath recognizing the supreme authority of the United States of America in the Philippine Islands. June 14, 1917, Wilson; 5,000 persons under suspended sentence because of change in the law (not war-related). Aug. 21, 1917, Wilson; clarification of June 14, 1917 proclamation. Mar. 5, 1924, Coolidge; more than one hundred deserters  as to loss of citizenship for those deserting since World War I armistice. Dec. 23, 1933, F. Roosevelt; 1,500 convicted of having violated espionage or draft laws during World War I who had completed their sentences. Dec. 24, 1945, Truman; several thousand ex-convicts who had served in World War II for at least one year. Dec. 23, 1947, Truman; 1,523 individual pardons for draft evasion during World War II based on recommendations of President's Amnesty Board. (The Board reviewed the cases of 15,805 alleged offenders. Of the 1,523 pardoned, all had been convicted and had served part or all of their sentences.) Dec. 24, 1952, Truman; ex-convicts who served in armed forces not less than one year after June 25, 1950 (Korean conflict). Dec. 24, 1952, Truman; all persons convicted for having deserted their military positions between August 15, 1945, and June 1950. Jan. 21, 1977, Carter; all persons who violated the Military Selective Service Act between August 4, 1964, and March 28, 1975 (Vietnam conflict). Proclamation 4483; Ex. Order 11967. Viewed in the context of this historical record, Governor Fletcher's attempt to characterize as an amnesty his attempted pardon of any and all persons who have committed, or may be accused of committing, any offense relating in any way to the current merit system investigation is simply absurd. I have found no instance in the history of Kentucky where a Governor purported to unilaterally grant an amnesty. Some of the delegates to the 1890 Constitutional Convention mistakenly believed that Governor Thomas E. Bramlette, who held that office from 1863-67, had issued a general pardon, or granted clemency, to all former Confederate soldiers. 1 Debates of Constitutional Convention of 1890 (Debates) 1099 (A.J. Auxier, Pike, Martin, and Johnson Counties), 1115-16 (W.M. Beckner, Clark County). Others correctly recalled that Bramlette had only issued individual pardons to former soldiers who had been indicted for their wartime activities. Id. at 244 (John D. Carroll, Henry County). In fact, it was not Bramlette but the 1866 General Assembly that amnestied the Confederate soldiers by enacting AN ACT to pardon all persons who have heretofore committed the crime of treason against the Commonwealth. 1866 Ky. Acts, ch. 107. Governor Bramlette had requested the action, Governor's Message to the General Assembly 12-13 (Dec. 4, 1865), no doubt recognizing that he, as governor, had no authority to issue a unilateral amnesty. [27] Significantly, in that message Bramlette also said: To forgive a man who does not ask it . . . would be to offer a bounty to wrong, id. at 13 (emphasis added), evidencing an understanding that a pardon of any kind must be premised upon individual application and acceptance. Bramlette did subsequently grant individual pardons to soldiers of both armies  who were charged by indictment, in the courts, for offenses alleged to have been committed by them as soldiers, while in the service, and during the war, Governor's Message to the General Assembly 4 (Adjourned Sess., Jan. 3, 1867) (emphasis added), evidencing his further understanding that an indictment is a condition precedent to an executive pardon.