Abstract
† Attorney-Advisor, Office of the Pardon Attorney, United States Department of Justice. J.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1991); M.A., Philosophy and Social Policy, American University (2003). The views expressed in this essay are solely my own opinions and do not reflect the official position of the Justice Department or the Office of the Pardon Attorney. I would like to thank Deirdre Golash, Lucinda Peach, Jeffrey Reiman, and Jason Specht for their many helpful comments on earlier drafts of this essay. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own. 1. Ex parte Wells, 59 U.S. (18 How.) 307, 310 (1856). 2. Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition 237 (1958). 3. According to Andrew Brien, “[t]he earliest recorded instance of an institution permitting an authority to forbear from acting against another’s interests appears in the law code of Hammurabi.” Andrew Brien, Mercy Within Legal Justice, 24 Soc. Theory & Prac. 83, 83 n.2 (1998), citing G. R. Driver & J. C. Miles, 1 The Babylonian Laws xxiv-xxv, 281-82, 348-49 (1955); see also 3 U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Attorney General’s Survey of Release Procedures: Pardons 1-53 (1939).
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
