ABSTRACT
The membership of mercy committees may be provided for in the constitutional text itself. In a handful of jurisdictions, the makeup of the mercy committee is solely left to the discretion of the executive. The committee is composed of a chairman and two other persons appointed by the governor-general, one of whom must be a qualified medical practitioner and one a social worker. An impartial committee, insulated from politics, is probably more likely to grant routine pardons and clemency requests than an elected official acting alone. Most English-speaking jurisdictions provide for a mercy committee to advise the governor in exercising the clemency power, a continuation of the British colonial practice. These constitutions vary widely in committee structure, membership, and conditions and terms of appointment. The quality of a board's decision or advice may depend on the degree to which the board is a political patronage body or an independent and technocratic committee of experts.
