What's the difference between clemency and pardon?

Clemency


Definition:

  • (n.) Disposition to forgive and spare, as offenders; mildness of temper; gentleness; tenderness; mercy.
  • (n.) Mildness or softness of the elements; as, the clemency of the season.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But in a last-ditch effort, his lawyers lodged an appeal for clemency on Monday morning.
  • (2) In a letter to the Australian newspaper , Stephens said the decision of the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, to refuse the pair clemency made him wonder what hope there was for freedom or redemption for other drug offenders, like himself.
  • (3) In a tweet soon after Tuesday’s announcement, Assange thanked “everyone who campaigned for Chelsea Manning’s clemency.
  • (4) The Guardian asked the White House for an update on both the online petition and on Manning’s clemency appeal, but received no reply.
  • (5) A senior US attorney who was involved in the prosecution of Native American activist Leonard Peltier has requested that Barack Obama grant clemency, with a rare plea that has energized the campaign to free the high-profile indigenous prisoner.
  • (6) Nor is there clemency for the "Bolotnaya 27", who took part in mass anti-Putin street protests in May 2012.
  • (7) His book details his efforts, for example, to win some clemency for a young man named Joe Sullivan , convicted in 1989, aged 13, of burglary and rape on testimony given by two older “accomplices”, one with a long criminal record of sexual violence.
  • (8) On Tuesday a federal judge in Austin refused Tamayo's request for a restraining order to stop governor Rick Perry and the Texas board of pardons and paroles from considering Tamayo's clemency petition until the procedure is "adequate and fair".
  • (9) The document will be given to all 24 England representative teams, with Ray Clemence having delivered a presentation to the Under-17s on Tuesday.
  • (10) The prisoner's appeal for clemency has been backed by many prominent individuals and groups in Georgia, including one of its most famous resident, former president Jimmy Carter.
  • (11) The parole board declined to spare Gissendaner’s life after a clemency hearing in February.
  • (12) The five political prisoners – convicted over a 2003 raid on an Indonesian military weapons arsenal – were granted clemency by Widodo in a ceremony at Abepura prison, in the provincial capital Jayapura.
  • (13) However, the focus on Snowden's singular case seriously deflects from the fact that the Obama administration has been a nightmare for whistleblowers and truth tellers, and that several others currently in prison or in exile deserve the same clemency or clear assurances they will not be prosecuted.
  • (14) Pro bono legal project Clemency Project 2014 was involved with clemency applications for 25 of the people granted commutations.
  • (15) Photograph: Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat Jefferson has previously refused to apply for clemency, arguing that it would equate to an admission of guilt to a crime he did not commit.
  • (16) Ray Bennett, now 59 and decades sober, will die in prison as sentenced 24 years ago – unless, as he hopes, he receives the same clemency that Barack Obama issued last week for 46 prisoners with similar cases.
  • (17) Peltier’s request for clemency is not a pardon appeal, but simply asks that Obama reduce the sentence.
  • (18) Gove said her power of “executive clemency” should be used to release 500 prisoners serving imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences who have already served more than the usual maximum sentences for their offences.
  • (19) Then, last July, Brown walked free after being granted clemency by Barack Obama.
  • (20) But Manning’s lawyers see the negative response of both the DoJ and the army as missing the point – they say their clemency petition is with Obama directly.

Pardon


Definition:

  • (v. t.) The act of pardoning; forgiveness, as of an offender, or of an offense; release from penalty; remission of punishment; absolution.
  • (v. t.) An official warrant of remission of penalty.
  • (v. t.) The state of being forgiven.
  • (v. t.) A release, by a sovereign, or officer having jurisdiction, from the penalties of an offense, being distinguished from amenesty, which is a general obliteration and canceling of a particular line of past offenses.
  • (v. t.) To absolve from the consequences of a fault or the punishment of crime; to free from penalty; -- applied to the offender.
  • (v. t.) To remit the penalty of; to suffer to pass without punishment; to forgive; -- applied to offenses.
  • (v. t.) To refrain from exacting as a penalty.
  • (v. t.) To give leave (of departure) to.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In an exceptionally rare turn, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, a panel appointed by the governor that is almost always hardline on executions, recommended that his death sentence be commuted to life in prison because of his mental illness.
  • (2) 'Devastated' Peter Greste calls on Egypt's president to pardon trio Read more “It’s ironic that the conviction was for tarnishing Egypt’s reputation when ... this [case] is what’s tarnished Egypt’s image,” Clooney told BBC News.
  • (3) But Blair's address - "history will forgive us" - was a dubious exercise in group therapy: the cheers smacked of pathetic gratitude, as he piously pardoned the legislators, as well as himself, for the catastrophe of Iraq.
  • (4) A request for a pardon would require an admission of guilt, which the women have said they will not give.
  • (5) I appeal to the king of Saudi Arabia to exercise his power to halt the public flogging by pardoning Mr Badawi, and to urgently review this type of extraordinarily harsh penalty.” Badawi’s case was one of several recent prosecutions of activists.
  • (6) "It is genuinely difficult to understand the motives of the pardons campaign," wrote Cathryn Corns and John Hughes-Wilson in their book, Blindfold and Alone , arguing that there should only be pardons for those who were suffering from shell shock when they left their posts, while other soldiers who "were demonstrably guilty" of desertion "deserved the full rigour of the law by the standards of their time".
  • (7) He looks heavenward in prayer: "Pardon, Richard; they know not what they do."
  • (8) He then tweeted a reference to reports, met with horror among Democrats , that White House advisers were exploring the possibility of presidential pardons.
  • (9) On Thursday, the Russian office of Interpol requested an international search for Mikhail Khodorkovsky , a former oligarch and Putin critic who fled to Switzerland after he was released from prison on a presidential pardon in 2013.
  • (10) In one speech he brought the house down when he introduced his party’s Armenian candidate, Garo Paylan, as “pardon my French”.
  • (11) • US: Offshore clients include Denise Rich, ex-wife of notorious oil trader Marc Rich, who was controversially pardoned by President Clinton on tax evasion charges.
  • (12) The board of pardons and parole had received a letter on behalf of Pope Francis urging them not to allow Gissendaner’s execution, the first since the pope’s address to the US Congress last week in which he called on the United States to abolish the death penalty.
  • (13) While all agree the US President has the complete power to pardon,” Trump wrote , “why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us.FAKE NEWS.” He added: Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) So many people are asking why isn't the A.G. or Special Council looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes.
  • (14) This year, we've had the anti-gay riot in the Kenyan town of Mtwapa, the arrest and subsequent pardoning of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga in Malawi and, of course, the " gay executions " bill in Uganda.
  • (15) Cameron: Nothing, that's the whole point … Rupert Murdoch: Pardon me for interrupting, sport, but I've just instructed my half-witted son that he is allowed to tell the truth to Leveson, after all.
  • (16) On 20 November Sannikov had to sign an application to Lukashenko for an official pardon.
  • (17) On Tuesday a federal judge in Austin refused Tamayo's request for a restraining order to stop governor Rick Perry and the Texas board of pardons and paroles from considering Tamayo's clemency petition until the procedure is "adequate and fair".
  • (18) "The sale of absolutions was the source of large fortunes to the priests ... God's pardon for crimes already committed, or about to be committed, was advertised according to a graduated tariff.
  • (19) But while Castro, who officially took over from his brother as president in 2008, announced pardons for nearly 3,000 prisoners, those hoping for a loosening of travel rules were disappointed.
  • (20) Glencore was founded by Marc Rich, the controversial oil trader who was accused of tax evasion by American authorities but was pardoned by President Clinton on his last day in office.