pardon my ignorance, should one be a US citizen to sign this petition or is it open to anybody?
The second petition will never be granted. I can say this with certainty because it is legally impossible to grant a pardon when someone has not been convicted (or plead guilty to) a crime to finality (i.e., the exhaustion of appeals).
As with the Enron fellow who died during his appeals, Aaron will never legally be guilty of whatever it was he was specifically charged with because his case was never adjudicated to finality.
it is legally impossible to grant a pardon when someone has not been convicted (or plead guilty to) a crime to finality (i.e., the exhaustion of appeals).
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Proclamation_4311 is a famous example disproving that.
All Obama has to say is that Massachusetts law enforcement acted stupidly. It'd have the same effect, as they've done so before, and he's said so before.
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-07-22/us/harvard.gates.intervie...
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-stat...
And a second petition to pardon Aaron:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/posthumously-pardo...