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Presidential Grant of Pardon and Rule of Law: The Case of Montie Trio

2019; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

1556-5068

Lydia A. Nkansah,

Judicial and Constitutional Studies

In August 2016, the former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama granted pardon to the Montie trio who had been convicted for contempt of court following offending statements against the Chief Justice and other Justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana sitting on a pending case. The pardon remitted the remaining three months of a four-month prison sentence meted out to the contemnors. The grant of the pardon sparked a lot of debate which partly centred on the legality of the President’s exercise of his pardon power especially in relation to the offence of contempt of court as provided for in the 1992 Constitution. Other issues raised were whether the Presidential pardon is discretionary and subject to Article 296? And whether it is absolute or are there limitations to it? Does the consultation with the Council of State provide a viable accountability for the presidential exercise of pardon? In this paper we argue that the grant of pardon exercised by the President, although legal was not legitimate. Our argument is based on the premise that in a constitutional democracy, rule of law – the requirement of legality, acting according to law has a higher connotation than the law.