Some people have asked: Does accepting a presidential or gubernatorial pardon imply an admission of guilt? The
answer turns out to be complicated.
1. In 1915, the Supreme Court indeed said, of pardons, that “acceptance” carries “a confession of” guilt. Burdick v.
United States (1915). Other courts have echoed that since.
2. On the other hand, a pardon has historically been seen as serving several different functions, one of which is
protecting people who were convicted even though they were legally innocent. In the words of Justice Joseph Story,
the most respected early commentator on the Constitution (writing in 1833),
There are not only various gradations of guilt in the commission of the same crime, which are not
susceptible of any previous enumeration and definition; but the proofs must, in many cases, be
imperfect in their own nature, not only as to the actual commission of the offence, but also, as to the
aggravating or mitigating circumstances. In many cases, convictions must be founded upon
presumpions and probabilities.
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