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by saneshark 3569 days ago
So this is probably just semantics, but can someone be "pardoned" when they have not yet been tried and found guilty of a crime? Until Snowden is tried and found guilty, he is innocent. What is there to exonerate at present?
2 comments
mikeyouse 3569 days ago
Yep. Most famously, Richard Nixon was pardoned before being convicted of anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_of_Richard_Nixon

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auxbuss 3568 days ago
It's law rather than semantics. The wikipedia article [0] on Nixon's pardon refers to this specifically:

"After Ford left the White House in 1977, he privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt."

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_of_Richard_Nixon

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