Using your knowledge of embedded context clues, what is the meaning of the word exonerated in the following passage?
Now that Jason has been exonerated, he was released from prison and his fortune is improving. The judge made a personal apology for the injustice he endured.
A. convicted
B. offended
C. pardoned
D. distressed
C would be the correct answer, if there is a government decision to allow a person who has been convicted of a crime, to be free and absolved of a conviction, if never convicted.