The chart below shows pardons granted per year from 1900-2011. Click on a bar to see the number of pardons granted and by which president. The timeline below the chart shows notable pardons. | Story:Shades of Mercy: Presidential Forgiveness Heavily Favors Whites »
1908
53 pardons Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
10 pardons
1787
Article II of the U.S. Constitution gives the president "power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."
1795
George Washington grants the first presidential pardons for the Whiskey Rebellion, a western Pennsylvanian protest against a tax on whiskey that turned violent.
1833
In the first U.S. Supreme Court decision on presidential clemency powers, Chief Justice John Marshall describes pardons as an "act of grace."
1858
James Buchanan pardons Brigham Young and other Mormons who had harassed federal troops during a dispute, known as the Mormon Rebellion, over governance of the Utah territory.
1865
Abraham Lincoln pardons Arthur O'Bryan, who had been convicted of attempting sex with an animal, because of his otherwise reputable character and because he had been drunk at the time.
1865
After the Civil War, Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, issues pardons "to all persons who have, directly or indirectly, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted." The exceptions included wealthy Southerners and high-ranking Confederate officials, who could apply for personal pardons, of which Johnson issued more than 13,000.
1869
Johnson pardons Dr. Samuel Mudd, Edmund Spangler and Samuel Arnold, who had received life sentences for conspiring to assassinate Lincoln.
William Howard Taft pardons millionaire businessman Charles W. Morse, center, who claimed illness while serving a prison sentence for violating federal banking laws. After his release, Morse "recovered," and Taft later expressed regret for the pardon. Morse later faced war profiteering charges in connection with his shipbuilding business.
1908
∞
Sources: The White House, United States Office of the Pardon Attorney, Department of Justice, The Minority Staff Committee on Government Reform - U.S. House of Representatives, The New York Times, The Washington Post, PardonPower.com/P.S. Ruckman, Jr., Yale Law School, University of Pittsburgh Law School, TIME magazine, The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, CNN.com, KITV/ABC News, LA Times, Texas Monthly, Frank Sinatra By Chris Rojek
Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. You are are free to republish it so long as you do the following:
You have to credit ProPublica and any co-reporting partners. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication(s).” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by ProPublica.” You must link the word “ProPublica” to the original URL of the story.
If you’re republishing online, you must link to the URL of this story on propublica.org, include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up language and link, and use our PixelPing tag.
If you use canonical metadata, please use the ProPublica URL. For more information about canonical metadata, refer to this Google SEO link.
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week,” and “Portland, Ore.” to “Portland” or “here.”)
You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. Please contact mediarights@propublica.org.
It’s okay to put our stories on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. You can’t state or imply that donations to your organization support ProPublica’s work.
You can’t sell our material separately or syndicate it. This includes publishing or syndicating our work on platforms or apps such as Apple News, Google News, etc.
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually. (To inquire about syndication or licensing opportunities, contact licensing@propublica.org.)
You can’t use our work to populate a website designed to improve rankings on search engines or solely to gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
We do not generally permit translation of our stories into another language.
Any website our stories appear on must include a prominent and effective way to contact you.
If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. We have official accounts for ProPublica on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Copy and paste the following into your page to republish: