Opinion ID: 2627850
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Nevada decisional law

Text: In an 1880 decision, State of Nevada v. Foley , this court considered the scope of the pardoning power. 15 Nev. 64 (1880). In Foley, the State sought to introduce a witness who was a convicted and pardoned felon. Id. at 66. The defense objected on competency grounds. Id. The district court overruled the objection and allowed the witness to testify, finding that the pardon restored the witness's competency. Id. at 66-67. On appeal, this court agreed, concluding that the authorities are uniform to the effect that a full and unconditional pardon of an offense removes all disabilities resulting from conviction thereof. Id. at 67. In reaching this conclusion, this court relied on the similar authorities and language as utilized in Garland to explain that the purpose of a pardon was to make the offender a new man; to acquit him of all corporal penalties and forfeitures annexed to the offense for which he obtains his pardon, and not so much to restore his former, as to give him a new credit and capacity.  Id. at 69 (quoting William Blackstone, 4 Commentaries ); see Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. at 380-81. While this explanation suggested that the pardoning power's reach was expansive, this court ultimately reversed the district court and remanded for a new trial, concluding that the witness's competency had not been legally established, as he had been convicted of an additional crime that was not expressly addressed by the pardon. Foley, 15 Nev. at 67, 74. Following Foley, this court later indirectly considered the scope of the pardoning power in Pinana v. State, 76 Nev. 274, 352 P.2d 824 (1960). In Pinana, the appellant was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Id. at 278, 352 P.2d at 827. Asserting a variety of errors on appeal, the appellant contended that the sentence was unconstitutional in part because it permitted the jury to abridge her eligibility for parole. Id. at 281, 352 P.2d at 828. More specifically, the appellant contended that Article 5, Section 14 of the Nevada Constitution, empowering the Pardons Board to grant pardons and commute punishments, precluded the Legislature from granting the judiciary the power to parole. Id. This court explained that a parole and a pardon are different legal concepts and are derived and governed by different provisions of law. Id. at 281-83, 352 P.2d at 828-29. Thereafter, this court concluded that the Executive's constitutional power to grant pardons was not unconstitutionally abridged by a statute providing for an administrative system of parole or by statutes granting the judiciary the power over paroles. Id. at 282, 352 P.2d at 829. While Pinana did not involve a factual predicate of a pardoned criminal, this court nevertheless distinguished parole from a pardon, explaining in dicta the legal effects of a pardon. Id. at 282-83, 352 P.2d at 829. Quoting the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, we tacitly adopted its holding that: [a] pardon is the exercise of the sovereign's prerogative of mercy. It completely frees the offender from the control of the state. It not only exempts him from further punishment but relieves him from all the legal disabilities resulting from his conviction. It blots out the very existence of his guilt, so that, in the eye of the law, he is thereafter as innocent as if he had never committed the offense. Id. at 282, 352 P.2d at 829 (quoting Commonwealth v. Cain, 345 Pa. 581, 28 A.2d 897, 899 (1942)). Accordingly, we concluded that NRS 200.030 was not unconstitutional because the Legislature had the power to establish the appropriate punishment for a felony conviction, see Nev. Const. art. 4, § 1, and thus, acted within its powers when it delegated to the judiciary the power to eliminate the possibility of parole. Pinana at 283, 352 P.2d at 829. These Nevada cases accord with early U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the federal clemency power, which, as explained below, is no longer the prevailing view of the gubernatorial pardoning power in the majority of other courts around the nation.