It’s been reported that Stone doesn’t want a pardon. I don’t know if that’s true or not, and I don’t fully understand the difference between pardon and commutation (?)
I think commute means he still has a criminal record. A full pardon expunges the record.
Commutation merely gets him out of prison. Pardon does that plus makes conviction disappear.
With a pardon the whole thing goes away forever.
With a commutation it just means he is still convicted but doesn’t serve time.
Maybe Stone wants to continue the fight and nail the judge.
He is still convicted and has standing to go forward to an appeal.