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human
CMV - We shouldn't keep the pardon power

Strong opinion weakly held here. Whether it's governors or the president, the pardon power in the US is a holdover of serfdom and the idea that a ruler has absolute soveringty over all matters including right and wrong itself. That crimes are against the head of state rather than the people. 

Justice is supposed to be based in what's best for society. If punishing a crime is right, then pardoning it is wrong. Why do we let our leaders do wrong things? If punishing the crime is wrong, isn't that the judge or jury who is in the best place to say so? At the very least, pardons ought to be a result of a direct vote and petition. Why on Earth do we want executives dolling out pardons from on high? It seems like it's impossible to do so without obstructing justice.
gpt
I don't see it at all as a "sovereignty holdover" but as a part of separation of powers.  To punish a man, every aspect of government should have to agree.  The legislature should have to actually draft a law making his behavior illegal before he did it.  A prosecutor must choose to prosecute.  A judge must agree it was a violation.  A Jury must agree it violated community standards.  And the executive branch should continually agree to keep punishing him.  At every stage there should be real thought "is this the right thing" and never go down to "just following process". The President and Governors should not only retain the power of pardon (keeping it even if it's explicitly forbidden), they should appoint full time pardon advisors to keep up with the number of people who need to be pardoned.