CargoAdmin, Bureaucrats, Moderators (CommentStreams), fileuploaders, Interface administrators, newuser, Push subscription managers, Suppressors, Administrators
14,662
edits
Office of the Pardon Attorney: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
|HeadquartersAddress= 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20530, USA | |HeadquartersAddress= 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20530, USA | ||
}} | }} | ||
'''Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA)''' functions within the [[Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]] to support the President in exercising executive clemency powers. This includes managing applications for pardons, commutations of sentence, remissions of fine or restitution, and reprieves for federal offenses. | |||
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} | |||
{{Short description|Key adviser to the president on clemency}} | |||
The '''Office of the Pardon Attorney''', part of the [[United States Department of Justice]], assists the [[president of the United States]] in his exercise of [[Federal pardons in the United States|executive clemency]] as authorized by [[Article Two of the United States Constitution|Article II, Section 2, of the US Constitution]]. The office is headed by the pardon attorney, with the current incumbent being Elizabeth G. Oyer, appointed by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Joe Biden]] in 2022. It operates under the general oversight of the [[United States Deputy Attorney General|deputy attorney general]] and in consultation with the [[United States Attorney General|attorney general]] or their delegate to review and process clemency applications. | |||
Under the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]], the president's clemency power extends only to federal criminal offenses. All requests for executive clemency for federal offenses are directed to the Office of the Pardon Attorney for investigation and review. The pardon attorney prepares the department's recommendation to the president for final disposition of each application. | |||
Since 1853, the responsibility of advising the president on pardon petitions has been assigned to the attorney general. Over time, various offices have supported this role in managing the clemency process, including the Office of the Pardon Clerk (1865–1870), the Office of the Attorney in Charge of Pardons (1891–1894). In 1894, the current Office of the Pardon Attorney was established.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-10 |title=Pardon Records |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/investigations/pardons |access-date=2024-12-02 |website=National Archives |language=en}}</ref> | |||
Executive clemency may take several forms, including [[pardon]], conditional pardon, commutation of sentence, conditional commutation of sentence, remission of [[fine (penalty)|fine]] or [[restitution]], [[Respite (law)|respite]], reprieve and [[amnesty]]. A pardon may be posthumous. The Office of the Pardon Attorney currently has a staff that includes the deputy pardon attorney, an executive officer, four staff attorneys, and its clerical staff and paralegals who assist in the review of petitions.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |url = https://www.justice.gov/pardon |title = Office of the Pardon Attorney |date = March 2, 2014 |publisher = United States Department of Justice |access-date = October 25, 2018 |language = en }}</ref> | |||
The power of clemency is "one of the most unlimited powers bestowed on the president by the Constitution."<ref name="WaPo_Gearan_20200222">{{Cite news|last1=Reinhard|first1=Beth|last2=Gearan|first2=Anne|date=February 3, 2020|title=Most Trump Clemency Grants Bypass Justice Dept. and Go to Well-Connected Offenders|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/most-clemency-grants-bypass-doj-and-go-to-well-connected-offenders/2020/02/03/4e8f3eb2-21ce-11ea-9c2b-060477c13959_story.html|access-date=February 22, 2020}}</ref> | |||
{{Official URL (simple)|url=https://www.justice.gov/pardon/}} | {{Official URL (simple)|url=https://www.justice.gov/pardon/}} | ||