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Texas Attorney General Rules in Favor of Poshumous Pardon Authority

By Steve Hall

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot today issued Opinion GA-0754 regarding the authority of a Texas governor to issue a posthumous pardon.  It's also available in Adobe .pdf format.Here's the summary:The Texas Constitution does not expressly address or limit the Governor's authority to grant a posthumous pardon. While a prior attorney general opinion concluded he could not grant a posthumous pardon due to the recipient's inability to accept it, modern United States Supreme Court decisions reject the common-law acceptance requirement that formed the basis of that opinion and the underlying Texas authorities. Given this shift in Supreme Court precedent and the Legislature's apparent recognition of this shift, we believe a Texas court would likely conclude that the Governor may grant a posthumous pardon under current Texas law, so long as all other constitutional requirements are met...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on January 07, 2010 (boomark / email).