Committee to grant pardons

I read Kevin Aquilina and Judge Giovanni Bonello’s recommendations aimed at finding an alternative solution to the “Presidential pardon” conundrum. I read Aquilina’s and Bonello’s recommendations aimed at finding an alternative solution to the ‘presidential pardon’ conundrum. 

I am no legal expert but it appears to me that whatever decision is eventually taken must surely introduce some form of constitutional safeguard against risk of temptation or coercion into the granting of political favours. 

Why not, therefore, legislate to set up a committee of independent experts whose sole role may be to adjudicate on recommendations for presidential pardons, such a committee to be appointed by agreement between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition?

Might I further recommend that the experts selected or appointed should include a retired judge, a professor of laws, a professor of one of the medical or nursing disciplines and the archbishop? 

A senior expert in sociology may also be helpful, and the committee should consist of an odd number of members to ensure a majority decision takes place within a reasonable timeframe.

The prime minister should then (except in truly exceptional circumstances) be legally obliged to pass on the committee’s recommendations to the president.

Anton  Borg – Gloucestershire, UK