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List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States

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List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States
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{{Short description|none}}{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}File:President Ford announces his decision to pardon former President Richard Nixon - NARA - 7140608.jpg|thumb|upright=.90|President Gerald Ford announces his decision to pardon former president Richard Nixon, September 8, 1974, in an Oval OfficeOval OfficeThis is a partial list of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States. The plenary power to grant a pardon or a reprieve is granted to the president by (Article Two of the United States Constitution#Section 2: Presidential powers|Article II, Section 2, Clause 1) of the Constitution; the only limits mentioned in the Constitution are that pardons are limited to federal offenses, and that they cannot affect an impeachment process: “The president shall ... have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment”.WEB,www.usconstitution.net/consttop_pard.html, Constitutional Topic: Presidential Pardons, usconstitution.net, February 4, 2017, Though pardons have been challenged in the courts, and the power to grant them challenged by Congress, the courts have consistently declined to put limits on the president’s discretion. The president can issue a full pardon, reversing a criminal conviction (along with its legal effects) as if it never happened. A pardon can be issued from the time an offense is committed, and can even be issued after the full sentence has been served. The president can issue a reprieve, commuting a criminal sentence, lessening its severity, its duration, or both while leaving a record of the conviction in place. Additionally, the president can make a pardon conditional, or vacate a conviction while leaving parts of the sentence in place, like the payment of fines or restitution.WEB, Pfiffner, James, Essays on Article II:Pardon Power, The Heritage Guide to The Constitution,www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/2/essays/89/pardon-power, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C., June 3, 2018, Pardons granted by presidents from George Washington until Grover Cleveland’s first term (1885–89) were handwritten by the president; thereafter, pardons were prepared for the president by administrative staff requiring only that the president sign it. The records of these presidential acts were openly available for public inspection until 1934. In 1981 the Office of the Pardon Attorney was created and records from President George H. W. Bush forward are listed.WEB,www.howstuffworks.com/presidential-pardon.htm, How Presidential Pardons Work, Josh, Clark, August 9, 2007, howstuffworks.com, August 27, 2012, {{horizontal TOC|nonum=yes}}“>

Summary{| class“wikitable sortable”

!President!Pardons!Notes
George Washington >|
John Adams >|
Thomas Jefferson >|
James Madison >|
James Monroe >|
John Quincy Adams >|
Andrew Jackson >|
Martin Van Buren >|
William Henry Harrison >|
John Tyler >|
James K. Polk >|
Zachary Taylor >|
Millard Fillmore >|
Franklin Pierce >|
James Buchanan >|
Abraham Lincoln >|
Andrew Johnson >| Excludes thousands of pardons for ex-Confederates
Ulysses S. Grant >|
Rutherford B. Hayes >|
James A. Garfield >|
Chester A. Arthur >|
Grover Cleveland >| Estimate
Benjamin Harrison >|
William McKinley >| Estimate
Theodore Roosevelt >| Estimate
William Howard Taft >|
Woodrow Wilson >|
Warren G. Harding >|
Calvin Coolidge >|
Herbert Hoover >|
Franklin D. Roosevelt >|
Harry S. Truman >|
Dwight D. Eisenhower >|
John F. Kennedy >|
Lyndon B. Johnson >|
Richard Nixon >|
Gerald Ford >|
Jimmy Carter >Proclamation 4483>pardoned for Vietnam draft evasion
Ronald Reagan >|
George H. W. Bush >|
Bill Clinton >|
George W. Bush >|
Barack Obama >|
Donald Trump >|
Joe Biden >| Excludes 6,500 pardoned for simple possession of marijuana

George Washington

President George Washington pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 16 people.WEB,ednet.rvc.cc.il.us/~PeterR/Papers/paper3.htm, Federal Executive Clemency in United States, March 19, 2011, Ruckman, P. S. Jr., November 4, 1995, dead,ednet.rvc.cc.il.us/~PeterR/Papers/paper3.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20110326045557ednet.rvc.cc.il.us/~PeterR/Papers/paper3.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20110326045557ednet.rvc.cc.il.us/~PeterR/Papers/paper3.htm, March 26, 2011, Among them are:
  • Philip Vigol (or Wigle) and John Mitchel, convicted of treason for their roles in the Whiskey Rebellion

John Adams

Federalist president John Adams pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 20 people. Among them are:

Thomas Jefferson

Democratic-Republican president Thomas Jefferson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 119 people. One of his first acts upon taking office was to issue a general pardon for any person convicted under the Sedition Act.BOOK, Liberty’s First Crisis: Adams, Jefferson, and the Misfits Who Saved Free Speech, Charles, Slack, 2015, Atlantic Monthly Press, 978-0802123428, 232, Among them are:

James Madison

Democratic-Republican president James Madison pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 196 people. Among them are:

, Ingersoll
, Charles Jared
, Charles Jared Ingersoll
, History of the second war between the United States of America and Great Britain: declared by act of Congress, the 18th of June, 1812, and concluded by peace, the 15th of February, 1815
, Lippincott, Grambo & Co
, 1852
, 2
, 82–83
,books.google.com/books?id=JW0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA83
,

James Monroe

Democratic-Republican president James Monroe pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 419 people. Among them are:
  • Numerous individuals convicted of piracy.BOOK, Preston, Daniel, A Comprehensive Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of James Monroe [Two Volumes], 2000, ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, 978-0-313-31426-1, 788ff,

John Quincy Adams

Democratic-Republican president John Quincy Adams pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 183 people. Among them are:
  • Captain L. O. Helland – arrested for having more passengers on board the vessel (Restauration) than were allowed by American law; pardoned in 1825
  • Wekau and Chickhonsic – Ho-Chunk leaders pardoned for their role in the Winnebago WarBOOK, Uncommon Defense: Indian Allies in the Black Hawk War, Hall, John W., 2009, Harvard University Press, 978-0-674-03518-8, 92, registration,archive.org/details/uncommondefensei00hall/page/92,

Andrew Jackson

Democratic president Andrew Jackson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 386 people. Among them is:
  • George Wilson – convicted of robbing the United States mails. Strangely, Wilson refused to accept the pardon. The case went before the Supreme Court, and in United States v. Wilson the court stated: “A pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered; and if it is rejected, we have discovered no power in this court to force it upon him.” While Wilson refused the pardon, he avoided being hanged unlike his accomplice who was. A report in The National Gazette of Philadelphia dated January 14, 1841, suggests that he was in prison for ten years until released. He received another pardon from President Martin Van Buren, which he accepted. However, the Smithsonian magazine has written that Wilson was hanged as a result of refusing the pardon.NEWS, Trex, Ethan, 11 notable presidential pardons,www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/01/05/mf.presidential.pardons/index.html, CNN, June 18, 2020,

Martin Van Buren

Democratic president Martin Van Buren pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 168 people. Among them are:

William Henry Harrison

Whig president William Henry Harrison was one of only two presidents who issued no pardons, the other being James A. Garfield. This was due to Harrison’s death shortly after taking office.

John Tyler

Whig president John Tyler pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 209 people. Among them are:
  • Alexander William Holmes – sailor convicted of voluntary manslaughter (U.S. v. Holmes); pardoned

James K. Polk

Democratic president James K. Polk pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 268 people. Among them are:

Zachary Taylor

Whig president Zachary Taylor pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 38 people.

Millard Fillmore

Whig president Millard Fillmore pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 170 people. Among them are:
  • Daniel Drayton and Edward Sayres – convicted in the Pearl incident (transporting slaves to freedom) in 1848; pardoned

Franklin Pierce

Democratic president Franklin Pierce pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 142 people.

James Buchanan

Democratic president James Buchanan pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 150 people. Among them are:

Abraham Lincoln

Republican president Abraham Lincoln pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 343 people. Among them are:

Andrew Johnson

(File:President Andrew Johnson pardoning Rebels at the White House, sketched by Stanley Fox.jpg|thumb|President Andrew Johnson pardoning Rebels at the White House, sketched by Stanley Fox)Democratic president Andrew Johnson pardoned about 7,000 people in the “over $20,000” class (taxable property over $20,000) by May 4, 1866. More than 600 prominent North Carolinians were pardoned just before the election of 1864.BOOK, Franklin, John Hope, Reconstruction After the Civil War,archive.org/details/reconstructionaf0000fran, registration, 1961, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 33–34, President Andrew Johnson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 654 people. Among them are:

Ulysses S. Grant

Republican president Ulysses S. Grant pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,332 people. Among them are:

Rutherford B. Hayes

Republican president Rutherford B. Hayes pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 893 people. Among them is:

James A. Garfield

Republican president James A. Garfield was one of only two presidents who issued no pardons, the other being William Henry Harrison. This is because Garfield only served a few months before being assassinated.

Chester A. Arthur

Republican president Chester A. Arthur pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 337 people. Among them is:

Grover Cleveland

Democratic president Grover Cleveland pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,107 (est.) people during his two, non-consecutive terms. Among them are:

Benjamin Harrison

Republican president Benjamin Harrison pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 613 people. Among them are:
  • Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – On January 4, 1893, granted amnesty and pardon for the offense of engaging in polygamous or plural marriage to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.WEB,www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=71164, Proclamation 346 – Granting Amnesty and Pardon for the Offense of Engaging in Polygamous or Plural Marriage to Members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Benjamin, Harrison, January 4, 1893, presidency.ucsb.edu, August 27, 2012,

Grover Cleveland

See list under first term.

William McKinley

Republican president William McKinley pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 918 (est.) people. Among them are:
  • Alexander McKenzie – North Dakota political activist convicted of contempt of court in 1901; pardoned after spending three months in prison
  • Charles Chilton Moore – Atheist newspaper publisher jailed for sending obscene material in the mail in 1899; sentence commuted after six months in prison

Theodore Roosevelt

Republican president Theodore Roosevelt pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 981 (est.) people.More are listed at the Presidential pardons page at Almanac of Theodore Roosevelt. Among them are:
  • Servillano Aquino – Filipino general received death sentence in 1902 for anti-American activities in the Philippines; pardoned after 2 years
  • Al Jennings – former train robber sentenced to life in prison for robbery in 1899, freed on technicality three years later; pardoned in 1904
  • Stephen A. Douglas Puter – convicted of land fraud in 1906; pardoned after 18 months so he could turn state’s evidence

William Howard Taft

Republican president William Howard Taft pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 758 people. Among them are:
  • John Hicklin Hall – attorney and politician convicted in 1908 for his role in the Oregon land fraud scandal; pardoned
  • Charles W. Morse – ice shipping magnate convicted in 1909 of violations of federal banking laws; pardoned in 1912 due to ill health (later found to be feigned)
  • William Van Schaick – steamboat captain convicted for criminal negligence for the General Slocum steamship disaster of 1904, pardoned after {{frac|3|1|2}} years in prison

Woodrow Wilson

Democratic president Woodrow Wilson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 2,480 people. Among them are:

Warren G. Harding

Republican president Warren G. Harding pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 800 people. Among them are:

Calvin Coolidge

Republican president Calvin Coolidge pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,545 people. Among them are:

Herbert Hoover

Republican president Herbert Hoover pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,385 people. Among them are:
  • Warren T. McCray – Governor of Indiana convicted of Mail Fraud in 1924, paroled in 1927; pardoned in 1930 after learning of the KKK’s role in his arrest and conviction
  • Thomas W. Miller – former Congressman and World War I veteran, convicted of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government in 1927; pardoned in 1933.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt granted 3,687 pardons in his four terms in office. Among them are:

Harry S. Truman

Democratic president Harry S. Truman pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 2,044 people.WEB,www.justice.gov/pardon/statistics.htm, Presidential Clemency Statistics: 1900 to Present, October 10, 2013, October 10, 2013, US Department of Justice – Office of the Pardon Attorney, Among them are:

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,157 people. Among them is:
  • Maurice L. Schick – military court-martial for brutal murder in 1954; death sentence commuted to life imprisonment in 1960, with the condition that he would never be released. Legal challenge went to the Supreme Court, questioning the constitutionality of the punishment “Life Imprisonment Without Parole”. Decided in Schick v. Reed that to be so sentenced was constitutional.
It is important to note that “until the Eisenhower Administration, each pardon grant was evidenced by its own separate warrant signed by the president. President Eisenhower began the practice of granting pardons by the batch, through the device of a “master warrant” listing all of the names of those pardoned, which also delegated to the Attorney General (or, later, the Deputy Attorney General or Pardon Attorney) authority to sign individual warrants evidencing the president’s action.“JOURNAL, Love, Margaret Colgate, Of Pardons, Politics and Collar Buttons: Reflections on the President’s Duty to be Merciful, Fordham Urban Law Journal, 2000, 27, 5, 1491,ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1786&context=ulj, March 13, 2018,

John F. Kennedy

Democratic president John F. Kennedy pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 575 people. Among them are:

Lyndon B. Johnson

Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 1,187 people. Among them are:

Richard Nixon

Republican president Richard Nixon pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 926 people. Among them are:
  • Jimmy Hoffa – prominent labor union leader convicted of fraud and bribery (tax evasion) in 1964; sentence commuted (with conditions) on December 23, 1971
  • Angelo DeCarlo – convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and extortion in March 1970; was pardoned in late 1972 due to poor health, died on October 20, 1973.

Gerald Ford

Republican president Gerald Ford pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 409 people. Among them are:

Jimmy Carter

Democratic president Jimmy Carter pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 566 people, and in addition to that pardoned over 200,000 Vietnam War draft evaders. Among them are:

Ronald Reagan

Republican president Ronald Reagan pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 406 people. Among them are:

George H. W. Bush

Republican president George H. W. Bush pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 77 people. Among them are:

Bill Clinton

Democratic president Bill Clinton pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 459 people. Among them are:
  • Almon Glenn Braswell – Nutritional supplement magnate, convicted of mail fraud and perjury in 1983; pardoned
  • Henry Cisneros – Clinton’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count for lying to the FBI in 1999 about payments to a mistress, and was fined $10,000.
  • Roger Clinton, Jr. – Half-brother of Bill Clinton. After serving a year in federal prison (1985–86) for cocaine possession.
  • John Deutch – Director of Central Intelligence, former Provost and University Professor, MIT. He had agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor for mishandling government secrets on January 19, 2001, but President Clinton pardoned him in his last day in office, two days before the Justice Department could file the case against him.
  • Edward Downe, Jr. – convicted of wire fraud, filing false income tax returns, and securities fraud in 1992; pardoned
  • Elizam Escobar – Puerto Rican artist and activist, convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1980; pardoned
  • FALN – commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a Puerto Rican clandestine paramilitary organization operating mostly in Chicago and New York City
  • Henry O. Flipper – The first black West Point cadet was found guilty of “conduct unbecoming an officer” in 1882. Posthumously pardoned.
  • Patty Hearst – Convicted of bank robbery in 1976 after being kidnapped and allegedly brainwashed. Prison term commuted by Jimmy Carter and was released from prison in 1979. She was fully pardoned by Clinton in 2001.
  • Rick Hendrick – NASCAR team owner & champion; convicted of mail fraud in 1997; pardoned
  • Susan McDougal – business partner with Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the failed Whitewater land deal. Guilty of contempt of court, she served her entire sentence starting in 1998 and was then pardoned.
  • Samuel Loring Morison – former naval intelligence officer, convicted of espionage and theft of government property in 1985; pardoned
  • Mel Reynolds – Former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois. Convicted of bank fraud and obstruction of justice in 1997; sentence was commuted.
  • Marc Rich, Pincus Green – business partners; indicted by U.S. Attorney on charges of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran in 1983 and fled the country that year. Pardoned in 2001 after Rich’s ex-wife, Denise Eisenberg Rich, made large donations to the Democratic Party and the Clinton Foundation.
  • Dan Rostenkowski – Former Democratic member of the US House of Representatives from Illinois, indicted for his role in the Congressional Post Office scandal and pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 1996. Served his entire 17-month sentence, then pardoned in December 2000.
  • Fife Symington III – Governor of Arizona convicted of bank fraud in 1997, the conviction was overturned in 1999; subsequently pardoned.NEWS, I Beg Your Pardon, Ken, Rudin,www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/junkie/archive/junkie012601.htm, The Washington Post, January 26, 2001, August 28, 2012,
  • Susan Rosenberg – a former radical activist and domestic terrorist of the early 1970s, was convicted of illegal explosives possession in 1984, commuted on January 20, 2001.

George W. Bush

Republican president George W. Bush pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 200 people. Among them were:

Barack Obama

Democratic president Barack Obama pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the conviction of 1,927 people.NEWS,edition.cnn.com/2016/12/19/politics/obama-clemency, Obama grants clemency to 231 individuals, largest single day act, CNN, Allie, Malloy, December 20, 2016, December 20, 2016, Among them were:

Donald Trump

Republican president Donald Trump pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 237 people. Among them were:

Joe Biden

As of December 2023, Democratic president Joe Biden pardoned, commuted, or rescinded several convictions, including the following:

See also

References

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

External links

{{Wikisource author|wislink= 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/United States, The/History|title=1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/United States, The/History}} {{Lists of US Presidents and Vice Presidents}}{{Federal pardons in the United States}}

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