PARAVAIL. Tenant1 paravail is the lowest tenant of the fee, or he who is the immediate2 tenant to one who holds of another. He is called tenant paravail, because it is presumed he has the avails or profits of the land. F. N. B. 135; 2 Inst, 296.
PARCEL, estates. Apart of the estate. 1 Com. Dig. Abatement3, H 511 p. 133; 5 Com. Dig. Grant, E 10, p. 545. To parcel is to divide an estate. Bac, Ab. Conditions, 0.
PARCENARY. The state or condition of holding title to lands jointly4 by parceners, before the common inheritance has been divided. Litt. sec. 56. Vide 2 Bl. Com. 187; Coparcenary; Estate In coparcenary.
PARCENERS, Engl. law. The daughters of a man or woman seised of lands and tenements5 in fee simple or fee tail, on whom, after the death of such ancestor, such lands and tenements descend6, and they enter. Litt. s. 243; Co. Litt. 164 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1871-2. Vide Coparceners.
PARCO FRACITO, Engl. law. The name of a writ7 against one who violently breaks a pound, and takes from thence beasts which, for some trespass8 done, or some other just cause, were lawfully9 impounded.
PARDON, crim. law, pleading. A pardon is an act of grace, proceeding10 from the power entrusted11 with the execution of the laws, which exempts12 the individual on whom it is bestowed13, from the punishment the law inflicts14 for a crime he has committed. 7 Pet. S. C. Rep. 160.
2. Every pardon granted to the guilty is in derogation of the law; if the pardon be equitable15, the law is, bad; for where legislation and the administration of the law are perfect, pardons must be a violation16 of the law, But as human actions are necessarily imperfect, the pardoning power must be vested somewhere in order to prevent injustice17, when it is ascertained18 that an error has been committed.
3. The subject will be considered with regard, 1. To the kinds of pardons. 2. By whom they are to be granted. 3. For what offences. 4. How to be taken advantage of 5. Their effect.
4. - §1, Pardons are general or special. 1. The former are express, when an act ofthe legislature is passed expressly directing that offences of a certain class; shall be pardoned, as in the case of an act of amnesty. See Amnesty. A general pardon is implied by the repeal19 of a penal20 statute21, because, unless otherwise provided by law, an offence against such statute while it was in force cannot be punished, and the offender22 goes free. 2 Overt23. 423. 2. Special pardons are those which are granted by the pardoning power for particular cases.
5. Pardons are also divided into absolute and conditional24. The former are those which free the criminal without any condition whatever; the. fatter are those to which a condition is annexed25, which must be performed before the pardon can have any effect. Bac. Ab. Pardon, E; 2 Caines, R. 57; 1 Bailey, 283; 2 Bailey 516. But see 4 Call, R. 85.
6. - §2. The constitution of the United States gives to the, president in general terms, "the power to grant reprieves26 and pardons for offences against the United States." The same power is given generally to the governors of the several states to grant pardons for crimes committed against their respective states, but in some of them the consent of the legislature or one of its branches is required.
7. - §3. Except in the case of impeachment27, for which a pardon cannot be granted, the pardoning power may grant a pardon of all offences against the government, and for any sentence or judgment28. But such a pardon does not operate to discharge the interest which third persons may have acquired in the judgment; as, where a penalty was incurred29 in violation of the embargo30 laws, and the custom house officers became entitled to one-half of the penalty, the pardon did not discharge that. 4 Wash. C. C R. 64. See 2 Bay, 565; 2 Whart. 440; 7 J. J. Marsh31. 131.
8. - §4. When the pardon is general, either by an act of amnesty, or by the repeal of a penal law, it is not necessary to plead it, because the court is bound, ex officio, to take notice of it. And the criminal cannot even waive32 such pardon, because by his admittance, no one can give the court power to punish him, when it judicially33 appears there is no law to do it. But when the pardon is special, to avail the criminal it must judicially appear that it has been accepted, and for this reason it must be specially34 pleaded. 7 Pet. R. 150, 162.
9. - §5. The effect of a pardon is to protect from punishment the criminal for the offence pardoned, but for no other. 1 Porter, 475. It seems that the pardon of an assault and battery, which afterwards becomes murder by the death of the person beaten, would not operate as a pardon of the murder. 12 Pick. 496. In general, the effect of a full pardon is to restore the convict to all his rights. But to this there are some exceptions: 1st. When the criminal has been guilty of perjury35, a pardon will not qualify him to be a witnessat any time afterwards. 2d. When one was convicted of an offence by which he became civilly dead, a pardon did not affect or annul36 the second marriage of his wife, nor the sale of his property by persons appointed to administer on his estate, nor divest37 his heirs of the interest acquired in his estate in consequence of his civil death. 10 Johns. R. 232, 483.
10. - §6. All contracts, made for the buying or procuring38 a pardon for a convict, are void. And such contracts will be declared null by a court of equity39, on the ground that they are opposed to public policy. 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3857. Vide, generally, Bac. Ab. h. t.; Com. Dig. h. t.; Nels. Ab. h. t.; Vin. Ab. h. t.; 13 Petersd. Ab. h. t.; Dane's Ab. h. t.; 3 lust40. 233 to 240; Hawk41. b. 2, c. 37; 1 Chit. Cr. L. 762 to 778; 2 Russ. on Cr. 595 Arch. Cr. Pl. 92; Stark42. Cr. Pl. 368, 380.