UK To Create Alan Turing Institute

kc123 writes "The UK government has announced plans to create the Alan Turing Institute intended to tackle problems in Big Data. The government will provide £42m over five years for the project. Turing was a pivotal figure in mathematics and computing. His codebreaking work led to the cracking of the German 'Enigma' codes. In December 2013, after a series of public campaigns, Turing received a posthumous royal pardon, for a conviction of homosexual activity in 1952."

Re:Pardon?!

[u38cg]

Strictly speaking, all a pardon does in UK law is remove the burden of the sentence. It is not a declaration of innocence and basically means nothing more than a get-out-of-jail card. Historically it was only used where it had practical effect, where someone was subject to a sentence of death or was still in prison. More recently, it has been used for things like pardoning deserters shot during WWI.