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

Maurice L. Schick?
"Maurice L. Schick – military court-martial for brutal murder; commuted to life with the possibility of parole.[24]" under President Gerald Ford, and under President Dwight D. Eisenhower it says "Maurice L. Schick – military court-martial for brutal murder; death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, 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." Can this be edited to make it clearer that one modified the "without parole" to "with parole"? I was a little confused about it. -mrdeleted (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 15:37, 24 December 2020 (UTC)

Purpose of this page
To list individuals notable enough for their own entry in Wikipedia who were the beneficiaries of the U.S. presidential pardon.
 * The purpose of this list seems like it would be a good purpose for the other pardon listings as well -- the partial lists available for a few of the last Presidents. The "purpose," as indicated above, is not apparent on these lists.  There are VERY FEW people listed who are linked to a Wikipedia article about them.  I am not saying that these folks are a bunch of nobodies.  But, with few exceptions, they do seem to be "pre-somebodies."  One guy was pardoned for not telling the truth.  Shocking to be sure and yet there is no article about him.  Maybe a listing of the "individuals notable enough for their own entry in Wikipedia" should be on one list and the relatively obscure folks could be on another list. Mkpumphrey 19:03, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
 * In support of the argument above-- Shouldn't this list include all people pardoned by a president? It seems to me that the article lacks validity if you limit it to "notable" persons.  Notable is a subjective term.  Why limit to people who have wikipedia articles? Some of the people may merit a wikipedia article now or in the future.--RDavi404 (talk) 16:15, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * According to the front page, "This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it." I believe this list will always be incomplete if limited to those with pre-existing wiki articles. --RDavi404 (talk) 16:19, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Definition of "Pardon" here
The power of pardon includes the full pardon, to commute a sentence and to grant clemency. Each and every action is a "pardon," per se. - Davodd 23:08, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Might want to include everything on this list of people pardoned by President Bush, then. Or at least provide a link to the full page and include only notable pardons. 12.208.168.197 23:11, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

I am definitely confused by the fact that this article only lists Libby, but the article referenced above lists a lot more.142.68.47.29 23:21, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
 * It appears to be the same practice with Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush: list only the most notable recipients on this page, and list everyone on the president-specific pages. - Walkiped (T 23:24, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
 * This page only lists folks who have their own WP entry. Hope that helps. Davodd 19:01, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

No, this page was made to imply that Democrats have pardoned more people than Republicans. See Pardongate, a discredited Republican attack on Clinton in particular and Democrats in general. Richrakh````

Libby
I don't believe Libby should be listed, because he was commuted, not pardoned.N734LQ 07:30, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
 * According to Davodd (above): "The power of pardon INCLUDES the full pardon, to COMMUTE a sentence and to grant clemency. Each and every action is a "pardon," per se. - Davodd 23:08, 2 July 2007 (UTC)."  Mkpumphrey 18:48, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Woodrow Wilson
This article fails to mention the pardon granted to George Burdick, a New York newspaper editor, who had refused to testify in federal court regarding the sources used in his article concerning the collection of customs duties. He plead the 5th; President Woodrow Wilson then granted him a full pardon for all of his offenses, which he refused. He continued to plead the 5th, at which he was sentenced by a federal judge for contempt. It was then that the Supreme Court reinforced the necessity of accepting a pardon to be valid; the federal judge had imprisoned Burdick on the grounds that he was claiming falsely his need for protection against self-incrimination.

In short, this article overlooks a pretty important pardon. Burdick was released on order of the Supreme Court.

Ghrey (talk) 03:59, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Then add it! No one will do it for you, and most of what goes on here on the talk page is ignored. travb (talk) 07:11, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
 * LOL if only the above was not so true...  RP459 (talk) 00:36, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Clemenced
Is clemenced really a word? My spell checker as I am writing this does not like it, and it is not in Wiktionary, also the only hit that came up quickly in Google was this page... RP459 (talk) 00:35, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Definitions
Since the title of this article contains the word clemency, the Definitions section of this article should also include a definition for the term clemency. Thanks. (Joseph Spadaro (talk) 16:00, 19 January 2010 (UTC))

Repeatedly, for each president, the article mistakenly says such things as:

"President George Washington pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions"

Rescind is redundant, isn't it? Pardon is what the president does; rescind can be deleted in each case! And, you don't commute a conviction, you commute a sentence! So, every entry's opening needs changing! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.255.107.110 (talk) 15:49, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

Two or Three Presidents Offered no Pardons?
It's mentioned in the article on William Henry Harrison and James Garfield that they are the only two Presidents to not pardon anyone (as they served too short a term), but James Monroe is not mentioned in the article at all. Did he not pardon anyone? Or is his ommission a mistake? I think it is the latter, as even Tippecanoe and Garfield were mentioned, even though they didn't pardon anyone. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.199.69.1 (talk) 16:13, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Andrew Johnson
"President Andrew Johnson pardoned about 7,000 people in the "over $20,000" class by May 4, 1866. More than 600 prominent North Carolinians were pardoned just before the election of 1865. President Andrew Johnson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 654 people during his term."

1) These numbers don't only not add up, there is an order of magnitude discrepancy. Recommend deleting all of this content as the source is not likely to be verified by an editor. 2) President Johnson was not President yet in the "election of 1865" (vague), so how did he pardon these North Carolinians just prior to election? Again, I recommend deleting all of this as it is incoherent and unlikely to be verified.VmZH88AZQnCjhT40 (talk) 22:29, 16 July 2013 (UTC)

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order of listing
Did it ever occur to you that, within presidential administrations, it made more sense to list commutations and pardons chronologically? I can only guess you like editing for the sake of editing. Perhaps you could have stopped and asked first. Chris Troutman ( talk ) 20:19, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I agree that it's more helpful to readers and researchers for us to list recipients chronologically within each presidency, rather than alphabetically. I fully support restoring that arrangement. KalHolmann (talk) 20:29, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Update: I restored chronological order pending consensus to alphabetize instead. KalHolmann (talk) 18:21, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

Styling of each entry
Hi. We currently have a mixture of styling entries in these sections. The article should be internally consistent.

Some entries are separated with an en dash, others are separated with a comma, and still others are separated by a hyphen. Examples are below. Is there any preference for which we style go with?

Also, is there any preference if the blurbs begin with a capital letter?

Noah Hanson - a free black man who was tried and convicted of assisting slaves to escape; only known Presidential pardon of a black person for Underground Railroad activities; convicted in 1851; pardoned in 1854[9]

Patty Hearst – Convicted of bank robbery; sentence commuted

Willie McCovey, pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 1995 and received two years probation and a $5,000 fine.[34]

Any thoughts? --MZMcBride (talk) 21:41, 15 April 2018 (UTC)


 * MZMcBride, I like the en dash – but in any case, agree that styling should be consistent. Thanks for pointing this out. KalHolmann (talk) 22:02, 15 April 2018 (UTC)


 * An en dash seems fine to me. It looks like many of the entries are using a lowercase letter for the start of the blurb, unless the word is always capitalized. We could enforce some consistency on this as well, which would impact the Patty Hearst entry, for example. --MZMcBride (talk) 23:26, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:List of Vice Presidents of the United States which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 23:02, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

List of people granted executive clemency by Donald Trump
Is there any reason why we do not have an article entitled "List of people granted executive clemency by Donald Trump"? We have a specific article for each of the past recent presidents (going back about 20 years, to President Bush Senior in 1989). Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:24, 31 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Would be a short article. Obama pardoned 212 and commuted 1,715. Trump has pardoned 5 and commuted 1. KalHolmann (talk) 18:26, 31 May 2018 (UTC)


 * One: Short or long, it's a notable topic. Two: Obama was in office for eight years; Trump, one.  No?   Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:11, 1 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Duh. That's why having a standalone article for Trump is premature. Let him build a record. KalHolmann (talk) 04:14, 1 June 2018 (UTC)


 * "Duh" ... ? Sorry, you have mistaken me for a third-grader.  Which I am not.    Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 05:58, 1 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I agree that courtesy is often in short supply here. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 04:38, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

Update: – I "reinstated" an "old" article by the title of "List of people granted executive clemency by Donald Trump". That "old" article had only one pardon, Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Someone redirected it to the Sheriff Joe Arpaio page. At this point, Trump has issued several pardons. It is a notable topic. And a stand-alone article is appropriate. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:48, 3 June 2018 (UTC)

I’d like to see a stand alone article for Trump, and I think it will get heavy traffic, as he is on a roll lately, pardoning people who have had connections donating large sums of money to his campaign. Joroho816 (talk) 16:59, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

Impossible pardon
Under Andrew Johnson's pardons appear this line...

"More than 600 prominent North Carolinians were pardoned just before the election of 1864."

Andrew Johnson wasn't President in 1864. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:301:777C:C750:991A:3BD:799F:6DAC (talk) 22:16, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Requested move 7 August 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: No consensus for either move. (non-admin closure) В²C ☎ 21:52, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States → List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the President of the United States – I am not sure whether this should be singular or plural, or whether they should be capitalized so I am opening up a discussion to confirm whether they should be. Interstellarity (talk) 12:21, 7 August 2019 (UTC) --Relisted.  Paine Ellsworth , ed.  put'r there  14:53, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Relist note: members of WikiProjects United States and Law have been notified of this request.  Paine Ellsworth , ed.  put'r there  15:03, 16 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Support: This refers to the formal title in singular form. I believe MOS:JOBTITLES prescribes uppercase under such circumstances. —BarrelProof (talk) 20:31, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Note to closer: the above !vote was posted before the introduction of two additional articles, below, to the same RM (in a non-standard format that people are apt to not even notice). It does not account for this or the additional rationales that may pertain to those other article titles. 70.234.233.100 (talk) 21:00, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

Discussion moved here from WP:RMTR:


 * List of international trips made by presidents of the United States → List of international trips made by the president of the United States


 * asked me to restore the article titles. See here.
 * Interstellarity (talk) 16:11, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Didn't the previous title use "President" with uppercase? Since it is singular, I think uppercase is correct. —BarrelProof (talk) 19:12, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * After the consensus was reached regarding plurals, I moved (from uppercase → lowercase) List of international trips made by the president of the United States, List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States, List of actors who played the president of the United States, List of actors who played the vice president of the United States and List of tie-breaking votes cast by the vice president of the United States. Perhaps, as (on my talk page) and you have suggested, uppercase is indeed correct – as the article title is in the singular form as a proper formal title. If that's the case, I've no objection to restoring uppercase "President" or "Vice President" to the titles. Drdpw (talk) 20:23, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * There is an open RM at Talk:List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States and another one at Talk:Vice President of the United States that are about the same issue. In the singular form of the formal title, I believe uppercase is correct. —BarrelProof (talk) 20:34, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Please also consider the other mentioned titles in this discussion. —BarrelProof (talk) 20:42, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

70.234.233.100 (talk) [SMcCandlish via public WiFi] 21:00, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Support pardons move. But Oppose trips move to the same format; instead, move it back to plural and lowercase. No change for VP article; leave Vice President of the United States as-is. They are very dissimilar cases.  Such a high-office title, when not attached to the name, is only capitalized when the office/title itself is a subject in the context (e.g.: "The President of the United States has less executive power in the US than the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has in the UK, due to how political parties operate under parliamentary governments."). In the case of the travel-related article added after-the-fact for discussion here, it's a weirdly singularized reference to plural, not to a title or a position. The office of President of the United States of America cannot go abroad, only an actual president (a human person) can, e.g. President Trump, and might do so for office-unrelated reasons, e.g. to attend the funeral of a friend.  That article should obviously be moved back to singular, and lower-case.  On the other hand, it is the office of the President of the United States and its constitutional authority that result in pardons; which individual held the office at the time is irrelevant. We would never have an article titled "List of people pardoned or granted clemency by presidents of the United States"; that would be irrational.  But we might have "List of pets of presidents of the United States", a similar case to the travel one: individuals and their families have pets; the office of the President of the US does not come with an official pet, just as it cannot relocate to Botswana.
 * Oppose – The MOS:JOBTITLES guideline covers this case by those examples: Richard Nixon was the president of the United States. as opposed to Richard Nixon was President of the United States. Here we have a definite article "the", so that "president" should remain in lowercase. — JFG talk 00:00, 8 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose pardons move. I agree with JFG's reading of MOS:JOBTITLES. Weak oppose trips move. In that case, both titles comply with MOS:JOBTITLES, so it's just a question of naturalness - I happen to think the present title (with plural presidents) reads just a bit more naturally. Colin M (talk) 18:11, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose both. No ambiguity in MOS:JOBTITLES as it lists this case specifically. Regarding the trips singular vs. plural, I think the plural is more appropriate (multiple presidents took the trips) even though there is only one officeholder at a time.  C Thomas3   (talk) 01:14, 16 August 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Presidential Turkey Pardons
Although there is a separate Wikipedia article. I believe that we should incorporate the name, weight, date of birth, and date of pardon for each Turkey pardoned under each administration. 2601:283:4A00:C200:4873:4038:789E:DAFA (talk) 22:20, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Andrew Jackson
Under Andrew Jackson's section it says that George Wilson refused the pardon and was then hanged - however, the article on United States v Wilson seems to dispute this, and says he "avoided being hanged" and served 10 years before being released, though does acknowledge that the Smithsonian magazine claims he was hanged. Clarification needed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:4B00:8678:FA00:9175:E262:4B67:C4A8 (talk) 17:48, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

Amahle
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