Pardon | featured news

President Obama unquestionably leads his predecessors in at least one area: Denial of pardon and clemency requests.

Turns out President Obama signed a pardon recently -- for a 11-year-old Minnesota boy who cut class to see him in the flesh.

The FBI released documents on Monday showing that New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner had actually worked for them as an informant, including giving his assistance in a terrorism investigation, before he was given a pardon by President Ronald Reagan for illegal campaign contributions.

The action involving Esteban Nuñez, who had pleaded guilty to participating in the killing of a college student, comes amid a flurry of final-day pardons and appointments by Schwarzenegger.

The rehabilitation of Billy the Kid lies dead in the dust. In one of his last official acts - or non-acts - before leaving office, New Mexico's governor refused to pardon the Old West outlaw Friday for one of the many murders he committed before he was gunned down in 1881.

President Barack Obama granted the first pardons of his administration Friday, erasing the records of nine people convicted over the past 50 years for a range of crimes ranging from drug possession to conspiracy to defraud.

Jim Morrison died in Paris in 1971 while his appeal against the conviction was pending. The charismatic but unpredictable lead singer of American rock band The Doors could be about to receive a posthumous pardon almost 40 years after being convicted of exposing himself on stage.