clemency

Noun

clemency (countable and uncountable, plural clemencies)

1. The gentle or kind exercise of power; leniency, mercy; compassion in judging or punishing.
   • For vs, and for our Tragedie, / Heere stooping to your Clemencie: / We begge your hearing Patientlie.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
   • Notwithstanding, that I be not farther tedious vnto thee, I pray thee, that thou wouldest heare vs of thy clemencie a few words.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 24:4
2. A pardon, commutation, or similar reduction, removal, or postponement of legal penalties by an executive officer of a state.
   • Judicial intervention might, for example, be warranted in the face of a scheme whereby a state official flipped a coin to determine whether to grant clemency, or in a case where the State arbitrarily denied a prisoner any access to its clemency process.2000, Sandra Day O'Connor, Supreme Court of the United States, edited by Frank D. Wagner, Ohio Adult Parole Authority v. Woodard, 523 U.S. 272 (1998) (United States Reports; 523) (judicial opinion)...
3. (archaic) Mildness of weather.
   • Now of all theſe Things there is ſuch a conſtant Continuance, by reaſon of the Clemency of the Climate, that ſcarce the leaſt Famine, which frequenteth other Countries, hath been felt in England theſe 400 Years.1748, Edward Chamberlayne, chapter IV, in Magnae Britanniae notitia: or, the present state of Great Britain. With diverse reflections upon the ancient state thereof, London: Printed for S. Birt, T....
   • The variegated verdure of the fields and woods, the ſucceſſion of grateful odours, the voice of pleaſure pouring out its notes on every ſide, with the gladneſs apparently conceived by every animal, from the growth of his food, and the clemency of the weather, throw over the whole earth an air of...1750 April 13 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. 5. Monday, April 3. 1750.”, in The Rambler, 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] Sands, Murray, and Cochran; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J....