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Is there a limit on presidential pardons in the US? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Sorry I hope this doesn’t go against the no politics rule. I promise this isn’t meant to be partisan but rather questions on legality for purely curiosity sake. But if it is please remove and I understand.

Is there a limit to US presidential power when it comes to pardons? Can it be used for any crime in the US or are there some things it cannot?

For example, if someone were to hypothetically carry out an assassination on a sitting president (any president, this is just a thought exercise), they would be sentenced to death most likely. But let’s say that the person was hired by the sitting VP. Assassin takes out the president, VP becomes president, then pardons assassin.

Based on current laws, could that happen? What other bizarre uses could happen?

Please keep this non-political per the rules.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Presidential pardons in the US only apply to federal crimes, not state crimes. In your situation the assassin could theoretically be pardoned of treason, sedition, hate crime, or whatever applied federally. But murder is a felony in all 50 states and DC, so the president would not be able to pardon that.

[–] derrickoswald 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Theoretically, it seems second degree murder can be subject to a pardon... https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-pardons-two-police-officers-convicted-murder-black-man-washington-2025-01-23

From the office of the pardon attorney: https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-grants-president-donald-j-trump-2025-present

January 22, 2025 - 2 Pardons

NAME and WARRANT		DISTRICT		SENTENCED							OFFENSE
Terence Dale Sutton, Jr.	District of Columbia	66 months imprisonment; three years supervised release	Murder in second degree; conspiracy; obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting
Andrew Zabavsky			District of Columbia	48 months imprisonment; three years supervised release	Conspiracy; obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This is probably just because it's DC. The rules get really muddy there. For a long time the highest elected position in DC was head of the school board, and even though ostensibly there's "home rule" now, Congress still loves to punish the local populace by overriding anything they think scores points with their base back in Idaho. If you get convicted of a felony in DC you actually get transferred to federal prison.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

To be clear, DC is a federal territory, not a state, so it doesn’t matter who their highest local elected official is. The only official with pardon power in federal territory is POTUS.