ABOLITION, implies the act of annulling, destroying, making void, or reducing to nothing. In our law, it signifies the repealing any law or statute. The leave given by a prince or judge to a criminal accuser to desist from further prosecution of the accused, is in the most appropriate sense denominated abolition.
ABOLITION is particularly used among civilians, for remitting the punishment of a crime. It is, in this sense, a kind of amnesty; the punishment, not the infamy, is taken off.