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Pardon vs Exoneration - What's the difference?

pardon | exoneration |

As nouns the difference between pardon and exoneration

is that pardon is pardon while exoneration is exoneration.

pardon

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Forgiveness for an offence.
  • * 1748 : Samuel Richardson, Clarissa
  • a step, that could not be taken with the least hope of ever obtaining pardon from or reconciliation with any of my friends;
  • (legal) An order that releases a convicted criminal without further punishment, prevents future punishment, or (in some jurisdictions) removes an offence from a person's criminal record, as if it had never been committed.
  • * 1974 : President Gerald Ford, Proclamation 4311
  • I... have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States ...

    Derived terms

    * I beg your pardon

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To forgive.
  • * 1599 : (William Shakespeare),
  • O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
  • * 1815 : (Jane Austen), (Emma)
  • I hope you will not find he has outstepped the truth more than may be pardoned , in consideration of the motive.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned .}}
  • To refrain from exacting as a penalty.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it.
  • (legal) To grant an official pardon for a crime; unguilt.
  • * 1900', , ' (The House Behind the Cedars) , Chapter I,
  • The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.

    Derived terms

    * pardonable * pardoner * pardon me * pardon my French * unpardonable

    Interjection

  • Pardon? , What did you say?, Can you say that again?

    exoneration

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of disburdening, discharging, or freeing morally from a charge or imputation
  • *{{quote-news, year=2007, date=May 14, author=Patrick Mcgeehan, title=New York Plan for DNA Data in Most Crimes, work=New York Times citation
  • , passage=Mr. Spitzer’s proposal also calls for the creation of a state office that would be responsible for studying all cases that resulted in exonerations and looking for flaws in the system that led to those wrongful convictions. }}
  • (uncountable) The state of being disburdened or freed from a charge.