- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
The Justice Department posted pardons online bearing identical copies of Donald Trump’s signature before quietly correcting them this week after what the agency called a “technical error.”
The replacements came after online commenters seized on striking similarities in the president’s signature across a series of pardons dated Nov. 7, including those granted to former New York Mets player Darryl Strawberry, former Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada and former New York police sergeant Michael McMahon.
In fact, the signatures on several pardons initially uploaded to the Justice Department’s website were identical, two forensic document experts confirmed to The Associated Press.
I’m back to point out presidential pardons are an absolutely WILD power to give to your head of state.
I’ve yet to hear a solid defence of having it in the first place. It’s a power just waiting to be abused.
I like the idea of pardon, just not coming from one dude. We should have pardon committees at state and national level instead.
This already seems to be a thing in other countries, just saying. Most common law countries (it seems from cursory reading) have mechanisms to refer convictions to an appellate court system.
I am not a lawyer and don’t really know how things work in practice in any country.
We do already, but instead of a pardon, we just don’t prosecute them. The purpose of a pardon is when you have an overzealous justice department, it allows the executive branch the ability to legally slap their hand.
And you can give those same powers to a group of citizens. Maybe the executive branch isn’t the best entity to be slapping their hands given that they appoint them.
Soooooo like a proper appellate court system?