With all due respect, everything I read says that a Pardon can be issued prior to a specific crime and at any time during the process. The Gerald Ford Library says that President Ford Pardoned Richard Nixon for all crimes within a specific time period.
I appreciate the correction, you jogged my memory on the difference. To accept a pardon before conviction is an implied confession of guilt. To be absolved of guilt implies that no guilt attached to the defendant's actions. The difference is subtle but important. Unfortunately the media typically conflates everything: pardon, absolution, setting aside the conviction, and absolution of guilt under the single sobriquet pardon.
If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?
