Clemency Procedures by State

Clemency Process by State

States vary in their pro­ce­dures for grant­i­ng clemen­cy. For fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers, the President alone has the pow­er to par­don or commute sentences.

States In Which the Governor Has Sole Authority (9)

States In Which the Governor Must Have the Recommendation of Clemency From a Board or Advisory Group (7)

States In Which the Governor May Receive a Non-binding Recommendation of Clemency From a Board or Advisory Group (8)

States In Which a Board or Advisory Group Determines Clemency (4)

Clemency pro­ce­dures in states that have most recent­ly abol­ished the death penal­ty:
Colorado, New Mexico, and Virginia — Governor has sole author­i­ty.
Delaware — Governor may com­mute, but must first have a clemen­cy rec­om­men­da­tion from a board or advi­so­ry group.
 — Governor receives a non-bind­ing clemen­cy rec­om­men­da­tion from a board or advi­so­ry group.
Connecticut — Governor has no pow­er to com­mute. A board or advi­so­ry group determines clemency.

NOTES:

* California’s gov­er­nor may not grant a par­don or com­mu­ta­tion to a per­son twice con­vict­ed of a felony except on rec­om­men­da­tion of the state Supreme Court, with at least four judges con­cur­ring.
** Florida’s gov­er­nor must have rec­om­men­da­tion of a Board, on which the gov­er­nor sits.
*** New Hampshire prospec­tive­ly abol­ished the death penal­ty in 2019. One pris­on­er remains on the state’s death row.

See also the American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project’s Capital Clemency Resource Initiative Clearinghouse web­page on state clemen­cy infor­ma­tion.

Clemency and Executions

Like clemen­cy process­es, the fre­quen­cy with which clemen­cy is grant­ed varies great­ly from state to state. In many states, clemen­cy has been grant­ed so rarely com­pared to the num­ber of exe­cu­tions car­ried out that its util­i­ty as a check on break­downs in the judi­cial process has been called into ques­tion. More than a dozen death-penal­ty states have not issued any grants of clemen­cy in death-penal­ty cas­es in the mod­ern era (since 1976). 

Here is a map com­par­ing grants of clemen­cy to the num­ber of exe­cu­tions since 1976.