Governor Tim Pawlenty Is the Anti Huckabee On Pardons

And that is bad as Joe Carter points out. See Minnesota Apparently an Injustice-Free Zone.

"In Minnesota, I don’t think I’ve ever voted for clemency. We’ve given out pardons for things after everybody has served out their term, but again, usually for more minor offenses. But clemency, certainly not. Commutation of sentence, certainly not."

One of the comments hit the real issue why this power should be used:

The purpose of executive power of pardon is not merely to catch miscarriages of justice but also to take into account extenuating circumstances that are not actually written into law because they are very rare or couldn’t be foreseen; so not only is the Minnesota court system infallible, its legislature must be omniscient, having taken every possible circumstance into account.