Felony Conviction Pardon

During the tedious play of the game of Monopoly, you and your fellow players are allowed to live out the lives of tycoons capable of monopolizing any area of the board that they want to. Of course, like any other game, there are pitfalls such as unpaid mortgages, extreme bank loans, and going to prison. Prison in Monopoly offers the inmate a number of ways to get their way back out onto the board but the most coveted is the "Get out Of Jail Free" card which can be used by the player who has squirreled away the card for the perfect moment; if only this happened in real life.

Everyone seems to express a desire for a "Get out of Everything Free" card to escape confrontation, persecution, or upset but there is no such thing in this life or is there? Inmates, even after the trial and at least some time in prison, are allowed to appeal their cases and apply for a pardon, the ultimate "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

Granted by head of state
This pardon from either the head of a state or a monarch grants forgiveness to the convict and allows him to be freed of the penalties brought on by the crime that put him behind bars. This seems to be like a perfect opportunity to free innocent people from the incarceration they did not deserve but this also seems like the perfect scheme for hard-hearted criminals to be put out on the streets again without further punishment. But, like any type of application process, it is highly selective and is only granted to a few special cases.

A pardon is essentially a gift that must not be abused and taken with the pure intent to change in order to keep from being thrown back into the legal system. A pardon, in the United States of America, can be granted from either a state governor or the President but both beget specific circumstances just in order to apply and be considered a worthy applicant.

The most common official who is able to grant a pardon is the governor of their respective states; the convict must apply for a pardon in the state that he was convicted and held on trial. The process to applying for a state pardon is very arduous and usually culminates in a hearing with a board of representatives that is the first barrier to be broken until one can actually consult with the governor.

Eligibility requirements
There are many eligibility requirements that must be met in order to even apply for legal forgiveness. In the state of Utah, like most states, there are many requirements including no intervening arrests, a maximum nature of the crime, meaning that it cannot exceed a class A or B misdemeanor, and serving a certain amount of time, if not all of it. Unfortunately, even if an applicant has met these standards it is unlikely that they will be granted the pardon that they seek.

The decision to grant a felon a pardon does not lie within the occasional forgiving nature of man but it is a political move that is based on political processes and legal unbiased analysis of the crime and its executor. The chance that a convict could be granted a pardon varies state to state but in many cases, the pardons are not granted and barely even touched by the governor for review.

Federal felonies
The other type of pardon exists for those who have convicted a U.S. federal felony and can only be pardoned by the President of the United States, only. Just like state pardons, the convict must meet a list of requirements before they are even allowed to enter an application such as waiting five years after the completion of their sentence and being released from probation or parole amongst a plethora of others.

The Constitution grants the power of pardoning solely to the President and when this document was written, Alexander Hamilton wrote that this power was important because without exceptions a government would be seen as terribly cruel and, in a sense, unjust. He saw that if a man accepted responsibility of his actions then he should be allowed a chance to live without the regrets of his past hovering over him through his life and remembered past his death. This is still practiced today but there are more rules and regulations to be respected before a person would even have a chance to appeal for forgiveness due to his taking responsibility. Just like obtaining a state pardon is difficult; a Presidential pardon is even harder to be granted since one would be dealing with the final and ultimate rule of the head of the entire country.

Unlike other legal decisions, one cannot appeal for a turn of the choice made by the President, it is final, but one can re-apply exactly two years after the date of their denial. The first Presidential pardons were given by George Washington to participants in the Whiskey Rebellion and over the past two-hundred and fifteen years, almost twenty-eight thousand sentences have either been pardoned or commuted. Read more about federal felony conviction pardons.

A shot in the dark but worth a shot
Many lawyers have said that they would not advise convicts to even begin the process to apply for any type of pardon because the chance of them being granted forgiveness is very time consuming reaping minimal results.

Although a pardon does not necessarily gets one out of jail, it can lessen their sentence and redeem rights that they lost with their conviction. A pardon is a gift that should not be taken advantage. The convict is not only trusted to reform themselves by the President or state governor but they are trusted by the American people who live by the law and expect that their fellow citizens should as well.