The Faculty of Pardon and it Exercise. Some Considerations about the Pardons to those Condemned to Priso by STS 459/2019

Abstract

This article aims to examine some general issues around the power to pardon especially relevant in the case of pardons granted to people sentenced to prison by STS 459/2019, such as the motivation that can justify pardons —and especially that relating to public utility, which refers to a political decision— and to the possibility and scope of its judicial control, in light of the new doctrine of the Supreme Court. The text also examines some issues that arise specifically in these pardons, such as the application or not of the prohibition of self-pardons, the demand for repentance and its impact on ideological freedom, or their partial and conditioned nature. To the extent that these pardons are situated within the framework of the political conflict in Catalonia, they must be seen in their context, and for this reason some related issues that appear in this debate are also discussed, such as the possibility of anticipated pardons, the reform of the crime of sedition in the Penal Code or the constitutional possibility of an amnesty law.