Citation

Austin T, Hummer D. Law Policy 2000; 22(1): 49-65.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, State University of New York at Buffalo, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1467-9930.00085

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A familiar but little studied area of criminal justice is that of pardons. Using data from the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, the decision-making process is examined to determine the degree of correspondence between the board's recommendation and the governor's decision to grant or deny a pardon. Included in the analysis is an assessment of the relative impact of legal and extra-legal variables on the decision-making process. The paper concludes with a discussion on the dynamics of the process, including why some individuals are more likely than others to be granted a pardon, and the implications the findings have for both policy and theory development.

Language: en