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tesseract on Sept 11, 2009 | parent | context | favorite | on: Gordon Brown apologises to Alan Turing

Being a USian I am not an expert on UK law, but I don't think the Prime Minister has the power to pardon. The Queen would have to do it (though presumably at the advice of the government).

J_McQuade on Sept 11, 2009 [–]

Actually, the Secretary of State for Justice has the power to grant a royal pardon, and notably exercised it just the other day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_of_Michael_Shields#R...

pmjoyce on Sept 11, 2009 | [–]

I think tesseract was right. Jack Straw's quote:

"... I have recommended to Her Majesty the Queen that he should be granted a free pardon and she has graciously assented."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8245760.stm

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