Many people wonder about the contrasts between a pardon vs commutation of sentence. Take lessons from President Trump and Roger Stone.

The U.S. Constitution provides the President of the United States with the power of pardon. And with a pardon, essentially, a president forgives the offender for committing an offense. A president has the power to pardon a person even before authorities charge a person with a crime. For example, anticipating all of the complications that surrounded the Watergate scandal, President Ford understood that President Nixon stood vulnerable to prosecution. To spare President Nixon and the country of a scandal associated with indicting a former president, President granted the pardon. I don’t have any idea whether President Nixon even requested the pardon.

A pardon is a form of executive clemency. Why? The President is the CEO of the entire nation. He is the head of the executive branch of government. Article Two of the US Constitution empowers the president to grant clemency.

Another form of clemency is a commutation of sentence. When a president commutes a sentence, the conviction is not forgiven. Rather, with a commutation, the president grants mercy. He forgives or adjusts a portion of the sentence.

When President Trump commuted Roger Stone’s prison sentence, the president granted mercy. Regardless of the sentence imposed by a federal judge, Roger Stone will not be going to federal prison.

If you or someone you love faces a prison sentence, learn steps you can take to advance possibilities for either a pardon or a commutation.

I wrote about my entire experience in the book Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Sentence. I wrote a series of books to help people get a better understanding of the prison system. More importantly, our books help people prepare for the best possible outcome. If you’d like to review our books, please visit our store at Prison Professors, or click the following link:

https://prison-professors-courses.mykajabi.com/store

Those kinds of books, and the courses we offer, would have been enormously helpful after my arrest. If you want to speak with one of our mitigation experts, contact my partner, Justin Paperny, by clicking the following link:

https://prisonprofessors.com/start-here-prison-professors/

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You may also like our podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prison-professors-with-michael-santos/id1330244967?mt=2

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