I was taken aback a bit when I read that a previous U.S. Attorney General said that Johnson was unfairly convicted back in the Jim Crow era, but that Johnson, of ‘The Great White Hope’ fame, nevertheless did not deserve a pardon by the President. What? Was he guilty or not? Clearly, no!
DOJ standard policy is not even to consider pardons for the deceased, which is why it’s only been done twice in history.