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The Political Roots of Executive Clemency

University of Georgia, aw{at}uga.edu

Holona L. Ochs

University of Kansas

It is widespread conventional wisdom that presidential pardons—the only way for offenders to remove or eliminate all disabilities that arise from a federal or military offense—are political. We move beyond this belief and assess five broad ways that federal pardons may be systematically influenced by the policy agendas present in a separated powers system. We model the aggregate dispensation of clemency appeals (requests for pardons) using Prais-Winsten regression and find that the probability of denials for executive clemency reflects the president’s own agenda and ideological position, congressional attention to criminal justice issues, and the homicide rate. In sum, both policy signals and the political processes they signify permeate the presidential pardons process.

Key Words: presidency • executive branch • pardons • clemency • executive privilege • criminal justice • separated powers • policy signals • policy agendas

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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Whitford, A. B. Articles by Ochs, H. L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?