Question

The President has the ability to pardon a person convicted of a crime, excusing them from punishment. This can even mean preventing the execution of a prisoner on Death Row! Presidential pardons are often controversial, and many presidents wait until their final days or hours in office to pass them.
Do you think the presidential pardon violates the rule of law? How might it? Second, consider a person wrongly convicted of a crime, or treated unfairly by the justice system. In that case, would a pardon actually be supporting the rule of law? How so?

Answer 1

Taking into consideration about the fact that presidential pardons can be quite.. controversial at times, it truly depends on the person in question who is being pardoned. While I can't just directly give you an answer, think about these:

- What is an example of a presidential pardon being reasonable? And an example of how a presidential pardon is unnecessary and/or unfair?
- What crime(s) did the person being pardoned commit? Is their punishment reasonable, or should they deserve to be pardoned?
- Does pardoning the person in question have a positive impact on society, or do members of society have strong reason to go against the person receiving a presidential pardon? (i.e., If a prisoner who killed someone without an unjust reason, such as in cold blood or simply for revenge, gets pardoned, how would civilians feel? Would they feel at ease, or would they have reason to be frightened by the choice?)

Hopefully these questions guide you a bit, although they might still be a bit confusing.. if they are, don't hesitate to let me know, I can try to narrow them down a bit to be a little more specific!