The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area 79 Pardon or commutation For federal death-row inmates, the president alone has the power to grant clemency. In cases relating to the death penalty, the Department of Justice states: “No petition for reprieve or commutation of a death sentence should be filed before proceedings on the petitioner’s direct appeal of the judgment of conviction and first petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 have terminated. A petition for commutation of sentence should be filed no later than 30 days after the petitioner has received notification from the Bureau of Prisons of the scheduled date of execution.” New guidelines also require that an inmate be given 120 days of notice of an execution date. The clemency process varies from state to state, usually involving the governor or a board of advisors, or both. In all cases, a formal petition for clemency must be filed. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, only the president has the power to commute a death sentence. Furthermore, no service member can be executed unless the president confirms the death penalty. According to official statistics, since 2004, courts have overturned death penalty sentences in nine cases, including two in 2005 and one in the first half of 2006. In two of those cases, the individuals were retried and found not guilty. In the other cases, the prosecutors declined to retry the individuals and the cases were dismissed. Since 2004, an additional eight individuals sentenced to death have had their sentences commuted on humanitarian grounds. Of these commutations, two occurred in the first half of 2006. These commutations include the case of Osvaldo Torres, detailed above in the section on consular notification. The remaining commutations were issued as a result of the mental condition of the defendants or possible trial injustices.