Trump Pardons Army Lt Who Murdered Iraqi Detainee & Burned Body

[TLK Valentine]

lol. Who just now gave their opinion that it was justice?

Yours, then.

See? Mystery solved.

A simple "none of the above" would've sufficed.

 

[TLK Valentine]

So let's let them decide what is and what isn't.

They did. They found him guilty.

 

[USincognito]

Have you not seen the movie?

Those years were back in the 80s when I only knew the joke from t-shirts sold in Soldier of Fortune.

 

[Pommer]

Those years were back in the 80s when I only knew the joke from t-shirts sold in Soldier of Fortune.

And National Lampoon

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

Are you surprised? This is the behaviour Donald expects from american soldiers in the field.

This was a war that he opposed.

By what legal right can a President pardon anyway? Merely statutory or constitional?

Constitutional. Article II, Section 2.

I assume it was put in place as a check and balance, or merely as a survival of the executive powers of representatives of the Crown in the original colonies, but I don't see a good logical argument why a President can willy-nilly overthrow legal proceedings in a Republic.

It is indeed a check and a balance. It checks the power of the judiciary by giving those charged with a crime recourse outside the judicial system.

So why should his word or decision on mercy carry more weight than the determinations of the elected legislature that made the law, or the supposedly independant appointed Judiciary that carries it out?

The judiciary does not carry the law out. The judiciary interprets the law. The executive carried it out - which is why the power of pardon rests with the executive.

The whole Pardon story seems hard to justify on theoretical grounds I feel, so if it is merely by statute, the President can pardon whomever he likes.

He can only those convicted of federal crimes. Pardons for state crimes must be given by the Governor of the state.

It's a prerogative of the President in our system that Trump is abusing so that he can gather political capital from racists, xenophobes, and other deplorables.

What do you suppose the power of pardon is for? The case against the pardon can't merely be "Lt. Behenna committed a crime!" Of course he committed a crime. The President can't pardon someone who wasn't convicted of a crime.

 

[TLK Valentine]

This was a war that he opposed.

Irrelevant.

Constitutional. Article II, Section 2.

Moral?

It is indeed a check and a balance. It checks the power of the judiciary by giving those charged with a crime recourse outside the judicial system.

Charged and convicted... let's not forget that.

What do you suppose the power of pardon is for? The case against the pardon can't merely be "Lt. Behenna committed a crime!" Of course he committed a crime. The President can't pardon someone who wasn't convicted of a crime.

A crime the president approves of.