[Luis Gonzalez]

ab·ro·gate
(click to hear the word) (br-gt)
tr.v. ab·ro·gat·ed, ab·ro·gat·ing, ab·ro·gates

To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority.

Even your definition agrees with my point. It isn't an amnesty, because the punishment is not abrogated, but rather it is reduced or simply changed.

Thanks for proving me right.

[William Terrell]

It isn't an amnesty, because the punishment is not abrogated, but rather it is reduced or simply changed.

Perpetual reduction and simple change equals abrogation. If a criminal faces legal sanctions by virtue of the law he violates, and is released from those sanctions temporarily, with an option for renewal of that release, and eventual citizenship, his punishment has been abrogated by an amnesty.

I can't see any way around it, and you haven't shown me one. I can't say that I appreciate Clintonian word parsing by a republican (advertised as conservative) executive and legislature.

The only difference I discern between abrogation by definition and abrogation in fact is the number of steps.