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As a check on the judicial branch of
government, the Constitution endows the president with a
few special judicial powers. The president has the
ability to pardon anyone convicted of a crime,
effectively nullifying their conviction and freeing them
from their sentence. Also given the president is the
power to grant amnesty from a type or class of crime. In
the case of amnesty, a general forgiveness for
all persons convicted of a particular crime is granted,
not to a specific individual. These two judicial powers
are used sparingly by most presidents and usually only
in special circumstances, as they effectively overturn
an indictment or conviction in a court of law and
potentially grant guilty parties their freedom.
NOTE: The examples
listed below are selected for their value in study for
the Regent's Examination,
and represent a small fraction of the possible examples.
Gerald
Ford pardons Richard M. Nixon:
 On
August 9th 1974, President Richard M. Nixon became the
first president to resign from office. Nixon's
resignation followed months of investigation into the
Watergate scandal, during which Nixon and his aides tried to
cover-up their involvement in the 1972 break-in of the
Democratic National Committee headquarters located at
Washington D.C.' Watergate hotel.
The bungled break-in resulted in the
burglars arrest and started a trail of evidence and
accusation that lead to the highest office in the land.
During the ensuing scandal Nixon refused to turn over
tapes of conversations made in the Oval Office to
investigating Congressional committees, finally agreeing
after a Supreme Court order. The heavily edited tapes
were still very damaging to Nixon and his aides, and
sparked moves in Congress towards an impeachment of the
president. To avoid further disgrace, Nixon opted to
resign from office, leaving Vice-President Gerald
Ford to assume the presidency.
As calls for prosecution of Nixon for
Watergate cover-up related crimes mounted on Capital
Hill, President Ford used his presidential powers to
grant Nixon a "full and absolute" pardon
for "crimes he committed or may have committed as
president". Despite huge criticism of the action as
unfair and failing to enforce the law equally, many were
pleased to have the scandal finally ended, feeling
Nixon's disgrace and resignation were punishment enough.
Gerald
Ford offer amnesty to Vietnam War draft dodgers:
 The
Vietnam War was very divisive for the American
public. Many young Americans actively protest against US
involvement in Vietnam and the drafting of US men into
the military to conduct the war. To avoid military
service, thousands of men dodged the Selective
Service by changing their identities and going
underground or fleeing the United States for
Canada, which did not extradite draft dodgers back to
the US.
Years after the US ended its
involvement in the Vietnam conflict, many of
these men were still wanted
criminals, perused for their refusal to abide the conscription
(draft). Ford offered these men a blanket amnesty,
which would in exchange for volunteer service forgive
them of their crime and allow them to re-enter US
society. Ford's amnesty plan sparked bitter debate among
the American people, exemplifying the fact that the
sharp divisions within America created by the war had
yet to fully heal.
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