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Re:Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Righ... by mattmaroon on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @11:15AM (#787301)
"Shocking as it sounds, Davis could end up proving his innocence and still be put to death."

Not really from a practical standpoint. No President or Governor would dare fail to pardon a man exonerated in court yet still sentenced to death, or it would be his career in the electric chair.

Re:Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Righ... by fallacy on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @11:42AM (#787360)
The Georgia Constitution vests the power of executive clemency in the Pardon and Parole Board. The Governor of Georgia can't pardon him.

This is a matter of state law. The President can't pardon him, at least there is no legal precedent for him to do so.

Re:Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Righ... by te_platt on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @12:20PM (#787455)
The president can pardon anyone for any reason except impeachment. See http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_pard.html for more information.

EDIT: I stand corrected to the comment below.

Re:Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Righ... by mrduncan on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @12:29PM (#787477)
The president has pardon power for federal crimes only, he does not have pardon power for state crimes. The constitution is pretty explicit about this, qualifying with "offenses against the United States".

Wikipedia has a much more thorough explanation than I can come up with right now (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon): In the United States, the pardon power for federal crimes is granted to the President of the United States under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution states that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment." The Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted this language to include the power to grant pardons, conditional pardons, commutations of sentence, conditional commutations of sentence, remissions of fines and forfeitures, respites and amnesties.

Re:Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Righ... by RyanMcGreal on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @12:32PM (#787492)
Where are the States Rights trolls when you need them?
Re:Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Righ... by Hoff on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @11:29AM (#787337)
Re:Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Righ... by ulf on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @11:28AM (#787332)
This does not solve it at all, because if he is pardoned he still spends the rest of his life in jail, doesn't he?
Re:Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Righ... by amalcon on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @11:41AM (#787357)
That would be a commutation. A pardon ends the sentence in its entirety.