The right to pardon undermines Democracy

Modern-day democracy is based on the principles of power being invested in the population, power-sharing, and accountability based on the Magna Carta of 1215. Independence of the justice system is meant to guarantee a fair, transparent, and just delivery of justice for all. The government is not supposed to interfere with legal judgments, and the parliament is set to decide about the rules under which the justice system can and has to operate independently of the other two wings of power. Pardon of convicted criminals and offenders is interfering in the decision-making process of the justice system at the highest level of society.

In Germany, only the Bundespräsident can pardon criminals and offenders, commonly practiced based on recommendations of the justice department and relevant bodies. It is seen as the mercy of humanity that the President of Germany can conduct on his discretion. In the past, these decisions were never seriously challenged by the media or the German population. Nevertheless, it is an interference in the process of the justice system that itself has a right to cut sentences short when offenders demonstrate remorse and are better participants in a peaceful society. The Bundespräsident is supposed to stand above the three wings of power, Executive, Judicative, and Legislative, even being often a party member of one of the main parties in Germany, supposedly to have a heart for all Germans regardless of political belief, religious conviction, or sexual orientation, among others. The fact that Germans cannot directly vote for their President based on the founding fathers` belief Germans might have the tendency to vote again for a Dictator like Adolf Hitler and that political parties would lose their position in the German political system to the German President does not challenge the right of the President to pardon criminals and offenders making him look like an over-father, the good Santa Claus with his white beard.

Absolute Monarchs, Emperors, or Kings ruling their nations determined the political system, so the justice system which was basically instituted in them. Out of this combination of power, the King had the right to pardon criminals and offenders according to his will or taste, justified or not. A systematic difference to leaders in a democratic jurisdiction.

In the USA, the President as equally the right to pardon criminals and offenders. He does so after recommendations from various parties. The American law system goes one step further. The President has the power invested in him to pardon himself for past and current offences. This perverse system (perverse in its original meaning means: opposite, contrary) stands in contrast to the principles of democracy. European settlers who entered the territory of North America after having suffered under the political systems of Europe holding the Paris Ball House declaration of Human Rights and the new principles of modern-day democracy in their hands, hearts and on their lips, shaped a new form of democracy in the USA that needs a remake exposed by the ongoing actions of the current President Donald J. Trump.

The world admires helpers, not destroyers.