Amnesty
Amnesty (from the
Greek amnestia, oblivion) is an act of grace by which the supreme power in a state restores those who may have been guilty of any offence against it to the position of innocent persons. It includes more than pardon, inasmuch as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the offence. Amnesties, which may be granted by the crown alone, or by act of parliament, were formerly usual on coronations and similar occasions, but are chiefly exercised towards associations of political criminals, and are sometimes granted absolutely, though more frequently there are certain specified exceptions. Thus, in the case of the earliest recorded amnesty, that of
Thrasybulus at
Athens, the thirty tyrants and a few others were expressly excluded from its operation; and the amnesty proclaimed on the restoration of
Charles II of England did not extend to those who had taken part in the execution of his father. Other celebrated amnesties are that proclaimed by
Napoleon on
March 13,
1815, from which thirteen eminent persons, including
Talleyrand, were excepted; the
Prussian amnesty of
August 10,
1840; the general amnesty proclaimed by the emperor
Franz Josef I of Austria in
1857; the general amnesty granted by
President of the United States Andrew Johnson after the
American Civil War in
1868; and the French amnesty of
1905. The last act of amnesty passed in
Great Britain was that of
1747, which proclaimed a pardon to those who had taken part in the second
Jacobite Rebellion.
- (from an old encyclopedia)
Amnesty is often now used as a short form of the human rights organization Amnesty International.\n