Can Bush Refuse an Obama Pardon?

Ironmouth — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:45:05 -0800

May George W. Bush refuse a pardon from Barack Obama? Imagine that Barack Obama's first act is to pardon George W. Bush for all the illegal acts he committed during his term. Could Bush refuse such a pardon? Would his refusal mean that he could still assert his Fifth Amendment right to not be required to incriminate himself? Or would he be required to testify before any committee to call him up? (assuming Bush fails in his inevitable assertion of executive privilege).

For that matter, can any other pardon-refusing potential witness before Congress or other body with subpoena power still claim Fifth Amendment rights to avoid incriminating themselves and thereby avoid testifying?

I'm a lawyer, so give me hard details if they exist. Google is no help.

Could you be charged with your own botched murder?

chudmonkey — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:57:38 -0800

HypotheticalLegalFilter: In a particular scenario, could the victim of a botched murder be charged with the murder? Details inside. Adam is a shop owner, and Ben is an insurance agent. Adam and Ben hatch an insurance scam in which Adam will make a false claim after a faked robbery, Ben will ensure his company pays out, and the two will share the profits.

Adam decides that his fake robbery is so fool-proof that he doesn't need Ben to ensure the insurance pay-out and decides to kill Ben instead. However, Adam accidentally kills random stranger Charlie instead of Ben when he confuses the two.

Here's my hypothetical legal question: Could Ben be charged in conjunction with Charlie's murder?

I've been thinking of it this way: If Charlie's murder is capital murder because it was perpetrated as an ancillary to the insurance fraud, and if Adam and Ben were co-conspirators in the fraud, then Ben could face a capital murder charge, even though he was the intended victim of the murder.

I get pretty much all my knowledge of criminal law from TV and novels, and the scenario above is also from a TV show I once watched. I'd really appreciate knowing if my theory as to the charges is possible, complete nonsense, or anywhere in between.

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Can Bush Refuse an Obama Pardon?

Could you be charged with your own botched murder?