Show HN: Pardonned.com – A searchable database of US Pardons

Post by GorbachevyChase » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC

nonameiguess wrote: post #16

kupadapuku wrote: post #6

Love this idea - if I were to extend it, I'd add some kind of analysis breaking down the % composition of pardons (fraud vs drug offences vs financial crime) by President to see if there's some common trend. I was a little surprised to see the Obama number quite so high, until it became apparent that the vast majority were drug offenders being pardoned

I'm pretty sure the numbers are going up simply because 1) 90s sentencing laws got insanely strict and prisons are full of old guys serving inflated sentences, 2) drug laws eventually became more lax and people are in prison for things that aren't even criminal any more, and 3) prisons have simply run out of space and it's easier to release people than build more. This kind of topic is bound to bring up a lot of outr…

Post by darknavi » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 2:05 PM UTC

vidluther wrote: post #35

justin66 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Obama number is also high because the designer combined Obama's first and second terms into one figure, unlike what he did with the other presidents who served two terms.

Hmm, I see the issue.. The DOJ website lists all of Obama's as once, so I need to modify the parser.. https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-bar... Compare that to the other list. https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-recipients

Post by vidluther » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

darknavi wrote: post #43

vidluther wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I see the issue.. The DOJ website lists all of Obama's as once, so I need to modify the parser.. https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-bar... Compare that to the other list. https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-recipients

That's probably intentional on the DOJ's part at this point.

Post by none2585 » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 2:22 PM UTC

GorbachevyChase wrote: post #41

nonameiguess wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure the numbers are going up simply because 1) 90s sentencing laws got insanely strict and prisons are full of old guys serving inflated sentences, 2) drug laws eventually became more lax and people are in prison for things that aren't even criminal any more, and 3) prisons have simply run out of space and it's easier to release people than build more. This kind of topic is bound to bring up a lot of outr…

Friend, I hope you do not actually believe that man was selling dope because of his nuanced political theories.

Post by layer8 » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 2:28 PM UTC

glerk wrote: post #44

andrewstuart wrote: post #27

Pardon power can serve no reasonable goal in a functioning democracy except to subvert justice.

https://pardonned.com/search/?president=obama-2&categories=d... I haven’t looked into each case here, but I assume these are a bunch of non-violent drug offenders serving years and decade-long sentences. I see 30 years for “possession with intent to distribute”. That’s just crazy. When the justice system is clearly broken, it’s ok to subvert it.