clemency

Etymology

From Latin clēmentia.

noun

1. The gentle or kind exercise of power; leniency, mercy; compassion in judging or punishing.
2. (law) 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), Washington: United States Government Printing Office, Opinion of O'Connor, J., page 289
3. (now rare) 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. Longman, T. Shewel, […], →OCLC, page 31