AMNESTY. An act of oblivion of past offences, granted by the government to those who have been guilty of any neglect or crime, usually upon condition that they. return to their duty within a certain period.
Express amnesty is one granted in direct terms.
Implied amnesty is one which results when a treaty of peace is made between contending parties. Vattel, 1. 4, c. 2, 20-22.
Amnesty and pardon are very different. The termer is an sot of the sovereign power, the object • of which is to efface and to cause to be forgotten a crime or misdemeanor; the latter is an act of the same authority, which exempts the individual an whom it is bestowed from the punishment the law inflicts for the crime he has committed. 7 Pet.160. Amnesty is the abolition and forgetfulness of the offence; pardon is forgiveness. A pardon is given to one who is oertainly guilty, or has been con victed; amnesty, to those who may have been so.
Their effects are also different. That of pardon is the remission of the whole or a part of the pun ishment awarded by the law,—the conviction re maining unaffected when only a partial pardon is granted; an amnesty, on the contrary, has the effect of destroying the criminal act, so that it is as if it had not been committed, as far as the pub lic interests are concerned.
Their application also differs. Pardon is always given to individuals, and properly only after judg ment or conviction; amnesty may be granted either before judgment or afterwards, and it is in general given to whole classes of criminals or supposed cri minals, for the purpose of restoring tranquillity in the state. But sometimes amnesties are limited, and certain classes are excluded from their opera tion.