Pardon vs. Commutation — What's the Difference?

Complete forgiveness of a crime.

Reduction of a criminal sentence.

Often symbolic of moral forgiveness.

Does not erase criminal conviction.

Absolution from legal consequences.

Focuses on penal adjustment.

Can be controversial in political contexts.

Often based on changed perceptions or laws.

May involve exoneration.

Less about moral judgment, more about fairness.

A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the jurisdiction.Pardons can be granted in many countries when individuals are deemed to have demonstrated that they have "paid their debt to society", or are otherwise considered to be deserving of them.

The action or process of commuting a judicial sentence

The action of forgiving or being forgiven for an error or offence

The process of commutating an electric current.

Forgive or excuse (a person, error, or offence)

The property of having a commutative relation.

A request to a speaker to repeat something because one did not hear or understand it

A substitution, exchange, or interchange.

To release (a person) from punishment or disfavor for wrongdoing or a fault

The substitution of one kind of payment for another.

To allow (an offense or fault) to pass without punishment or disfavor.

The payment substituted.

To make courteous allowance for; excuse

The travel of a commuter.

The act of pardoning.

Conversion of alternating to unidirectional current.

Exemption of a convicted person from the penalties of an offense or crime by the power of the executor of the laws.

Reversal of current direction.

An official document or warrant declaring such an exemption.

(Law) Reduction of a penalty to a less severe one.

Allowance or forgiveness for an offense or a discourtesy

Substitution of one thing for another; interchange.

Roman Catholic Church An indulgence.

Specifically, the substitution of one kind of payment for another, especially a switch to monetary payment from obligations of labour.

Forgiveness for an offence.

(legal) The change to a lesser penalty or punishment by the State

(legal) An order that releases a convicted criminal without further punishment, prevents future punishment, or (in some jurisdictions) removes an offence from a person's criminal record, as if it had never been committed.

(linguistics) Substitution, as a means of discriminating between phonemes.

(transitive) To forgive (a person).

(electronics) The reversal of an electric current.

(transitive) To refrain from exacting as a penalty.

(obsolete) A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.

To grant an official pardon for a crime.

(obsolete) The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.

Often used when someone does not understand what another person says.

(US) The process or habit of journeying to and from work on a regular basis; commuting.

The act of pardoning; forgiveness, as of an offender, or of an offense; release from penalty; remission of punishment; absolution.

A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.

An official warrant of remission of penalty.

The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.

The state of being forgiven.

The change of a penalty or punishment by the pardoning power of the State; as, the commutation of a sentence of death to banishment or imprisonment.

A release, by a sovereign, or officer having jurisdiction, from the penalties of an offense, being distinguished from amnesty, which is a general obliteration and canceling of a particular line of past offenses.

A substitution, as of a less thing for a greater, esp. a substitution of one form of payment for another, or one payment for many, or a specific sum of money for conditional payments or allowances; as, commutation of tithes; commutation of fares; commutation of copyright; commutation of rations.

To absolve from the consequences of a fault or the punishment of crime; to free from penalty; - applied to the offender.

Regular travel from a place of residence to a place where one's daily work is performed; commuting. Most often, such travel is performed between a suburb and a nearby city.

To remit the penalty of; to suffer to pass without punishment; to forgive; - applied to offenses.

The travel of a commuter

To refrain from exacting as a penalty.

A warrant substituting a lesser punishment for a greater one

To give leave (of departure) to.

(law) the reduction in severity of a punishment imposed by law

The act of excusing a mistake or offense

The act of putting one thing or person in the place of another:

A warrant granting release from punishment for an offense

The formal act of liberating someone

Accept an excuse for;

Grant a pardon to;

Typically, pardons are final and cannot be reversed by subsequent administrations.

No, a commutation does not remove a criminal conviction; it only alters the punishment.

Pardons and commutations are usually granted by a president or governor.

Yes, if the commutation reduces the sentence to time already served.

Not necessarily; it forgives and removes penalties but does not always imply innocence.

Yes, non-citizens can receive pardons or commutations, but these might not affect their immigration status.

A pardon erases the legal effects of a conviction, while a commutation merely reduces the severity of the punishment.

Pardons are less common than commutations and are often reserved for exceptional cases.

Yes, pardons are public records and are usually subject to public scrutiny.

Pardons do not typically relieve obligations like civil liability from lawsuits.

A pardon typically restores rights such as voting, serving on a jury, and holding public office.

In some jurisdictions, pardons can be granted before conviction or even before charges are filed.

Reasons include good behavior, changes in law, or humanitarian grounds.

Commutations may be seen as equitable adjustments rather than moral judgments.

Generally, commutations cannot be appealed by the prosecution as they are an exercise of executive clemency.