Abstract

This Essay considers how governors who are interested in reducing mass imprisonment can provide “mercy for the masses” who are in the middle of the criminal justice punishment spectrum. It draws on the successful mass pardons for misdemeanor marijuana offenses, as well as the aspects of the Obama Clemency Initiative that worked well. The proposals that follow offer four variations on a default rule for automatic, but modest, mass commutations.

[...]

This Essay proceeds as follows. First, Part I explains how the modern clemency power has often been focused on death penalty cases and low-level misdemeanors. Part II then recounts how most of the people incarcerated in the United States are there for run-of-the-mill “ordinary” felonies and that those crimes have historically not received clemency. Finally, Part III describes four proposals to flip the current state of affairs from individualized decision-making to a default rule of mass commutations.

This abstract has been taken from the author's introduction.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Publication Information

102 Texas Law Review 1431-1447 (2024)

Comments

Written for the symposium on Mercy (2024) held at University of Texas School of Law.

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