Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, amnestia, "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, ...
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usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet been convicted." Though the term general pardon has a similar definition, an amnesty constitutes more than a pardon, in so much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the offense. Amnesty is increasingly used to express the idea of "freedom" and to refer to when prisoners can go free.
