List of people pardoned or clemenced by a United States president

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The following list of people pardoned by a United States president documents the most prominent cases of each presidency. The power of pardon in the U.S. presidency includes the ability to grant a full pardon, commutation of a sentence and/or the granting of clemency for any federal offenses.

Approximately 20,000 pardons and clemencies were issued by U.S. presidents in the 20th century alone. This list includes pardons and commutations.^[1]

Definitions

A pardon means an executive order vacating a conviction.

A commutation means a mitigation of the sentence of someone currently serving a sentence for a crime pursuant to a conviction, without vacating the conviction itself.

George Washington

• Tom the Tinker - Leadership of the Whiskey Rebellion - the first pardons granted by a President

James Madison

• Jean Lafitte and Pierre Lafitte and the Baratarian Pirates for past piracy, granted due to their assistance during the War of 1812; granted February 6, 1815.^[2]

Andrew Jackson

• George Wilson - convicted of robbing the United States mails. Strangely, Wilson refused to accept the pardon. The case went before the Supreme Court, in which the court stated: "A pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered; and if it is rejected, we have discovered no power in this court to force it upon him." As such, Wilson was not released from prison early.

James K. Polk

• John C. Frémont - convicted by court martial of mutiny. Frémont later became the 1856 Republican candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

James Buchanan

• Brigham Young - pardoned for role in the Utah War.

Andrew Johnson

• Confederate soldiers - unconditional amnesty to all Confederates on Christmas Day 1868; earlier amnesties requiring signed oaths and excluding certain classes of people were issued both by Lincoln and by Johnson.
• Dr. Samuel Mudd - charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln
• Edmund Spangler - charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln
• Samuel Arnold - charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln

Grover Cleveland

• David King Udall - convicted on perjury charges; spent 3 months in a Federal Prison; received a full and unconditional pardon

Warren Harding

• Eugene V. Debs - sentence commuted

Calvin Coolidge

• Marcus Garvey - sentence commuted and deported

Harry Truman

• Oscar Collazo - Collazo attempted his assassination. Commuted death sentence to life sentence.

Richard Nixon

• Jimmy Hoffa - sentence commuted on condition
• Angelo DeCarlo - convicted of extortion; served 1 1/2 years; pardoned due to poor health

Gerald Ford

• Richard Nixon - full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while President
• Robert E. Lee - full rights of citizenship were posthumously restored
• Iva Toguri D'Aquino - "Tokyo Rose" - only U.S. citizen convicted of treason to be pardoned

Jimmy Carter

• Oscar Collazo - Attempted assassination on President Harry S. Truman
• G. Gordon Liddy - sentence commuted
• Peter Yarrow - Singer-songwriter
• Vietnam draft dodgers - amnesty issued in the form of a pardon
• Jefferson Davis - President of the Confederate States of America.
• Patty Hearst - Convicted of Bank Robbery; sentence commuted

Ronald Reagan

• George Steinbrenner - Nixon campaign contribution
• Junior Johnson - Moonshining
• W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller - FBI officials convicted of authorizing illegal break-ins

George H.W. Bush

• Elliott Abrams - Iran-Contra affair
• Armand Hammer - CEO of the Occidental Petroleum Company, Nixon campaign contribution
• Robert C. McFarlane - National Security Adviser to President Ronald Reagan over Iran-Contra Affair
• Caspar Weinberger - Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, pardoned before trial over Iran-Contra Affair

Bill Clinton

• Roger Clinton, Jr. - brother of Bill Clinton. After serving a year in federal prison for cocaine possession.
• Patty Hearst - sentence for bank robbery commuted on condition by Jimmy Carter, pardoned by Clinton.
• Marc Rich, Pincus Green - business partners; had fled the U.S. after being indicted by U.S. Attorney on charges of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis.
• Dan Rostenkowski - United States Representative Democratic Party.
• Susan McDougal - partners with Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the failed Whitewater deal.
• Henry Cisneros - Clinton's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count for lying to the FBI, and was fined $10,000.
• Mel Reynolds - Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives.
• Henry O. Flipper - guilty of "conduct unbecoming an officer" (1882)
• John Deutch - Director of Central Intelligence, former Provost and University Professor, MIT
• Rick Hendrick - NASCAR Team Owner & Champion.
• Vicki Lopez Lukis - Former Lee County, FL Commissioner. Sentence commuted

George W. Bush

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (November 2008)

• Lewis "Scooter" Libby - Convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to investigators in connection with the CIA leak scandal involving members of President George W. Bush's administration. Libby received commutation, not a full pardon.
• Leslie Owen Collier - Convicted of killing 3 Bald Eagles, and other birds of prey, in 1995.
• José Compeán and Ignacio Ramos - Shooting and wounding drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Dávila and trying to cover up the incident

See also

• Pardons and clemency in the United States

References

General references:

• Presidential Clemency Actions By Administration: 1945 To 2001
• Presidential pardons page at University of Pittsburgh School of Law
• Leslie Collier

Specific references:

• Leslie Collier