Controversy has surrounded the issue of pardons throughout its long history, from God's commuting Cain's banishment, to Pontius Pilate's release of Barabbas, to recent speculations that Oliver North would be pardoned. Pardoning practices in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Enlightenment varied drastically. The Norman kings, for example, readily granted pardons, while the philosophers of the Enlightenment argued vehemently against the...