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Pardon is a forgiveness or release from punishment for a wrong doing or fault and amnesty refers to a pardon given to a large group of individuals.

ADDING ON FROM THIS LAST GUY...

I'm afraid that this answer, while close, is wrong.

A pardon in legal terms is the removal of charges and penalties from a person suspected of combating a single crime, but was found innocent. This can result from enough evidence being provided to counter a persecutor's claims, or vice verse, with the persecutor not having a strong enough case to have the defendant's actions considered an offence. Generally, a pardon refers to the dropping of charges on one specific case. Furthermore, pardons are usually granted by a head of state, such as a monarch or president. Therefore, they only affect rather important cases. However, even after a pardon evidence of accusations are still left on the suspects records, and they may still be closely monitored by the government afterwards,

Amnesty, on the other hand, does not refer to any sort of "mass-pardon". The legal meaning of "amnesty" is the complete obliteration of all legal remembrance of a crime, rendering the previous suspect/criminal completely free of charges. This is different from a pardon as amnesty removes any traces of the crime from government records, effectively restoring the legal status of a person to as it was before they were accused.

The word stems from the same roots as "amnesia", meaning loss of memory.

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βˆ™ 12y ago
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Q: What is the difference between a pardon and amnesty?
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