Politicians cynically perverting the merciful power of the pardon

Re “When ‘law and order’ means neither” (Ideas, April 16): The power of the executive branch to grant pardons may be the most humane of the checks and balances contained in federal and state constitutions. In addition to tempering justice with mercy, it offers a measure of protection to individuals from errors or excesses implemented by legislatures or judiciaries.

However, in recent years we have seen the salutary power of pardon cynically perverted by politicians not only to solicit the commission of crimes in their interests but to shield their political and ideological sympathizers from legal accountability for actual crimes they have committed, now apparently including murder, as in the Texas case cited in Renée Graham’s column.

Moreover, blanket pardons and pardons that are essentially contemporaneous with the acts they forgive deprive the public of full knowledge of exactly what crimes have been committed and who else may have been involved. In light of recent history, others involved might plausibly include the executive seeking to grant the pardon.

Perhaps we should criticize our Founding Fathers for not adequately foreseeing the degree of depravity of individuals who could be installed in executive branch offices, but we need not accept that lack of foresight as immutable. By statute or amendment, it should be made law that pardons may be granted only for criminal acts for which the person to be pardoned was convicted prior to the date that the granting executive first took office. The proper purpose of pardons is to bestow mercy on the recipient, not advantage on the granter.

KEITH BACKMAN

Bedford