Policy

Clemency

Clemency is the process by which a governor, president, or administrative board may reduce a defendant’s sentence or grant a pardon. Clemencies have been granted in death-penalty cases for a variety of reasons.

Overview

All states and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment have a process for low­er­ing the sen­tence or par­don­ing those fac­ing crim­i­nal charges. Clemency is an espe­cial­ly impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tion for those on death row. Even after all legal appeals in the courts have been exhaust­ed, there is still a pos­si­bil­i­ty that a pris­on­er’s life will be spared.

Clemencies in indi­vid­ual cap­i­tal cas­es are rare, but there have been a num­ber of blan­ket grants of clemen­cy by gov­er­nors con­cerned about sys­temic prob­lems and the over­all fair­ness of the death penal­ty. Among the rea­sons giv­en for grant­i­ng clemen­cy in indi­vid­ual cas­es are: men­tal ill­ness of the defen­dant, a co-defen­dant who was giv­en a less­er sen­tence, inad­e­quate legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and evi­dence that the defen­dant may have been wrongly convicted.

At Issue

Because the pow­er of clemen­cy is vest­ed in the exec­u­tive branch of the gov­ern­ment, courts have been reluc­tant to impose stan­dards on this pro­ce­dure. Governors are elect­ed; thus the process may be high­ly polit­i­cal. For these rea­sons, clemen­cies in death penal­ty cas­es are dif­fi­cult to pre­dict and immune from judicial review.

Grants of Clemency by State

What DPIC Offers

DPIC keeps track of all clemen­cies grant­ed in cap­i­tal cas­es in the mod­ern era by state and year, includ­ing the rea­sons giv­en for the action. It also has com­piled mate­r­i­al on his­tor­i­cal uses of clemen­cy. Finally, DPIC describes the dif­fer­ences among state laws regard­ing who makes the clemen­cy deci­sion and any con­straints on the process.

Although a reprieve is tech­ni­cal­ly a type of clemen­cy, this page dis­cuss­es only exec­u­tive acts with per­ma­nent effects on a defendant’s con­vic­tion or sen­tence. Temporary holds on exe­cu­tions are tracked on our Outcome of Death Warrants pages.

News & Developments

News

Jan 02, 2025

In Wake of President Biden’s Federal Commutations, North Carolina Governor Cooper Grants Clemency to 15 Death-Sentenced Prisoners, the Largest Grant of Capital Clemency in State History

On December 31, 2024, dur­ing his last day in office, out­go­ing North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of 15 men on the state’s death row to life in prison with­out parole.​“These reviews are among the most dif­fi­cult deci­sion a Governor can make and the death penal­ty is the most severe sen­tence that the state can impose,” said Gov. Cooper in a state­ment fol­low­ing the announce­ment of the com­mu­ta­tions.​“After thor­ough review, reflec­tion, and prayer,…

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News

Dec 09, 2024

Religious Groups, Former Corrections Officials, Pro-life Voices, and Many Others Urge President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences

In let­ters released on December 9, 2024, hun­dreds of stake­hold­ers urged President Joe Biden (pic­tured) to com­mute all fed­er­al death sen­tences before his term ends, cit­ing racial bias, sys­temic arbi­trari­ness, and the fail­ure of the fed­er­al death penal­ty to enhance pub­lic safe­ty. This col­lec­tive request reflects broad, bipar­ti­san acknowl­edge­ment of the flaws in the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem and aligns with the nation­al down­ward trend of sup­port for the death penal­ty, now at his­toric lows. 40…

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News

Nov 27, 2024

Biden Contemplates Federal Commutation Requests

On November 25, 2024, President Joe Biden par­doned two Thanksgiving turkeys, an annu­al, sym­bol­ic tra­di­tion that high­lights the president’s con­sti­tu­tion­al author­i­ty to issue par­dons and com­mu­ta­tions. Now, as President Biden sets to leave office in January 2025, 60 mem­bers of Congress and many oth­ers are urg­ing him to grant clemen­cy to the 40 men cur­rent­ly on fed­er­al death row. During his 2020 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign, President Biden said he would work to abol­ish the fed­er­al death penalty but…

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News

Nov 07, 2024

Idaho: Federal Judge Grants Stay of Execution for Thomas Creech; Defense Asks Court to Bar Death Penalty for Bryan Kohberger

After sur­viv­ing a botched exe­cu­tion attempt in February, Thomas Creech was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion a sec­ond time on November 13 in Idaho. On Wednesday, November 6, a fed­er­al dis­trict court issued a stay of exe­cu­tion to allow more time to con­sid­er Mr. Creech’s legal claims. The Idaho Department of Corrections announced that ​“exe­cu­tion prepa­ra­tions have been sus­pend­ed” and the exe­cu­tion warrant will…

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News

Nov 01, 2024

Prisoners With Executions Dates in South Carolina and Idaho File Requests for Clemency

Attorneys for South Carolina death row pris­on­er Richard Moore (pic­tured) filed a clemen­cy peti­tion with Governor Henry McMaster, ask­ing him to com­mute his sen­tence to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Mr. Moore has gar­nered sup­port from a wide range of indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing the for­mer direc­tor of South Carolina Department of Corrections Jon Ozmint. In a let­ter to Gov. McMaster, Mr. Ozmint writes about how Mr. Moore’s ​“sto­ry of redemp­tion” and good behav­ior will allow him to…

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