What's the difference between commutation and pardon?

Commutation


Definition:

  • (n.) A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.
  • (n.) The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.
  • (n.) The change of a penalty or punishment by the pardoning power of the State; as, the commutation of a sentence of death to banishment or imprisonment.
  • (n.) A substitution, as of a less thing for a greater, esp. a substitution of one form of payment for another, or one payment for many, or a specific sum of money for conditional payments or allowances; as, commutation of tithes; commutation of fares; commutation of copyright; commutation of rations.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The lies Trump told this week: from murder rates to climate change Read more “President Obama has commuted the sentences of record numbers of high-level drug traffickers.
  • (2) 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.
  • (3) Whether out of fear, indifference or a sense of impotence, the general population has learned to turn away, like commuters speeding by on the freeways to the suburbs, unseeingly passing over the squalor.
  • (4) It also devalues the courage of real whistleblowers who have used proper channels to hold our government accountable.” McCain added: “It is a sad, yet perhaps fitting commentary on President Obama’s failed national security policies that he would commute the sentence of an individual that endangered the lives of American troops, diplomats, and intelligence sources by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, a virulently anti-American organisation that was a tool of Russia’s recent interference in our elections.” WikiLeaks last year published emails hacked from the accounts of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s election campaign.
  • (5) The surface mount electronic internal controller provides motor commutator, energy management, telemetry, and physiologic control functions.
  • (6) The pair woke up early and gathered their birth certificates, social security cards and passports before making the roughly three-hour commute.
  • (7) But Clegg also says he is not going to be cowed into taking Cameron's vow of silence about Farage's assertion that he finds Britain unrecognisable and is uncomfortable at the lack of English spoken on commuter trains out of Charing Cross.
  • (8) Well, news from the commuters and the rail users is that we don't like it, and we want a cheaper more equitable service.
  • (9) Two weeks after the July 7 suicide bomb attacks that killed 52 London commuters and injured more then 750, Shahid, a young Londoner who had just completed his fourth year at medical school, flew to Pakistan .
  • (10) Stephen Joseph, its chief executive said: "This is bitter news for everyone who relies on the train to get to work, not least the large number of commuters in marginal constituencies who will be a key group at the next election."
  • (11) Concluding an inquiry into the experience of rail passengers that became dominated by the events at Southern , the transport select committee said commuters had been badly let down.
  • (12) When you factor in commuting costs, it's not surprising many families decide it doesn't make sense financially for both parents to work.
  • (13) If you are a London commuter dreading tube strike chaos this evening and tomorrow there is an alternative to fighting your way on to overcrowded buses or a long walk.
  • (14) Prenatal care is provided in rural areas by health care people that commute from the cities.
  • (15) Sir Stephen Richards, 59, was arrested by detectives investigating an alleged sexual assault on a commuter service between London Waterloo and Wimbledon in south-west London.
  • (16) Another described First Great Western as " the worst commuter line I've ever had to endure ": "Not only is it the most expensive train line in Europe, it was never on time.
  • (17) Mahaneela Choudhury-Reid, a Londoner of colour, clashed with a smartly dressed commuter during what should have been the mid-morning quiet.
  • (18) Transport for London stepped in with a £750m pledge to prevent meltdown in the public-private partnership for the underground yesterday, as the capital's mayor warned of a "difficult period" for commuters after the tube's biggest maintenance firm entered administration.
  • (19) Potential London escapees will probably be put off by the cost of commuting, as an annual season ticket costs about £5,000, and the knowledge that state schools in London are better, on the whole, although Oxford has a stellar independent sector thanks to the likes of Oxford High School for Girls and Magdalen College School .
  • (20) The commutations are meant to combat the strict mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes – symbolically, at least – an area where Republicans and Democrats both support reform .

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.