This article is a short description of the presidential pardon law, its objective and subjective scope and, above all, an attempt to look at this institution from the perspective of the person covered by it and the real effects it causes for them. Due to the current case-law of the Constitutional Tribunal, the situation of the pardon’s beneficiary was considered with the assumption that amnesty granted in individual cases would function in the Polish legal order. As a consequence, the right of clemency was divided into pardon applicable to a person convicted by a final court judgment and amnesty granted in individual cases used before a final conviction was made. Next, an analysis was carried out of both the legal status of the person covered by the presidential amnesty and of the person covered by the pardon.