Humanities desk
< June 10	<< May \| June \| Jul >>	June 12 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

June 11

Can a pardon be rescinded or revoked?

I wanted to continue a follow-up question from a few days ago. It has now been archived. (See here: [1].) My follow-up question: once issued, can a pardon be rescinded? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:56, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

According to this opinion, the answer is no, once the pardon has been "signed, sealed and delivered". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:13, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting. That is what I figured. It makes sense, common sense. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:24, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

What that opinion does not appear to make clear is that there are two sides to a pardon - it has to be offered and accepted. When someone accepts a pardon, they are implicitly admitting their guilt. There have been people so determined to prove their innocence that they have refused pardons. If a pardon could later be reversed, it would be impossible to ensure a fair trial as the previous acceptance of the pardon was, effectively, a guilty plea. Wymspen (talk) 07:05, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That writer, a law scholar, says "Delivery and acceptance are not required to make a pardon effective." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:52, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Pardon me, but according to this Government of Canada document, "6,046 pardons were revoked or ceased to be in effect" between 1970 and 1998. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:38, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The writer I cited was talking about American law. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:20, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

As we Canadians are your double-secret-probationary overlords, obviously our laws take precedence. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:37, 13 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

My 5th grade history teacher actually told us he thinks the US will take over Canada within 200 years. He wasn't joking. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 14:13, 13 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The real lesson there is how safe it is to predict something that's 200 years in the future. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:03, 14 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Whether a pardon is revocable depends on applicable law. In the case of Isaac Toussie, the president purported to revoke a pardon that had not been delivered. Toussie did not sue, and the validity of the revocation remains unsettled, although some scholars are of the view that it was ineffective. John M Baker (talk) 13:07, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

What was ineffective? The pardon? Or the revocation? Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:35, 12 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Some scholars think the revocation was ineffective, but this is unsettled. John M Baker (talk) 13:09, 13 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:51, 14 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

this user enquires the names of philosophers whose works are on failure, deterministic nature of existence, control

knowledge should be found quickly in universeFAMASFREENODE (talk) 14:04, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Lists_of_philosophers. AllBestFaith (talk) 15:20, 11 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]