Justice Stephen Field, writing for the Supreme Court in the 1866 case Ex parte Garland (not Merrick), held that the pardon power was, except as already noted, “unlimited. … It extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission.” Thus pardons can indeed be issued even before someone is formally charged with an offense. And the pardon “cannot be fettered by any legislative restrictions.”
Pardon power of Governor is probably only a matter of each states constitution.
Sheila LaBoof joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 2 hours later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#800,204
by then, Trump will have ensured that torture of subversives is standard
and writers will use the phrase, "hoisted by his own petard"