Originally Posted by
JoeMorgue
1. No self pardons.
2. No pardons for direct family members.
3. No pardons for anything you are directly involved in.
4. The President can grant a pardon, but someone else has to propose it first.
5. The pardon can only be for a specific crime that the person has already been convicted of.
One problem I can see with that...
It eliminates the ability for presidents to issue pardons like when Carter pardoned all Vietnam draft dodgers. I don't think it would be practical to have all all of them arrested.
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6. Accepting the pardon is an admission of guilt of the crime.
As others have pointed out... the trouble with that one is that it eliminates the chance of a pardon for someone who is truly innocent (e.g. if evidence is found exonerating them.)
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7. No pardons during the lame duck period (although honestly the 'lame duck' period needs to go away or be severely shortened anyway)
That one isn't necessarily a bad idea, but it also doesn't bother me that much. I recognize that there may be cases where pardons are morally right but could be politically damaging (e.g. Obama commuting the sentence of Manning...) and thus allowing a president to issue a pardon in the 'lame duck' part of their presidency may
sometimes be a good thing.
The caveat is that there are additional safeguards (such as your 'no self pardons', or as another poster suggested, some way for the senate to challenge pardons).