The potential for a former President to subject a pardon to the blended martial arts fighter, at the moment going through tried homicide costs, entails complicated authorized and political concerns. Presidential pardon energy, whereas broad, is usually exercised in direction of people convicted of federal crimes. Velasquez’s costs, nevertheless, stem from a state court docket case in California, inserting a limitation on presidential intervention. A pardon’s applicability is mostly confined to federal offenses, excluding state-level violations.
The importance of such a pardon lies not solely in its potential to change the course of a high-profile authorized case but additionally in its potential ramifications for the notion of justice and the applying of the regulation. Traditionally, presidential pardons have been used for numerous functions, together with reconciliation and to appropriate perceived injustices. On this occasion, the pardon may very well be seen as an act of clemency or, conversely, as an intervention that undermines the state’s authorized proceedings. The political context, together with the connection between the previous President and figures inside the MMA group, would undoubtedly issue into public notion of the choice.
