Yesterday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner announced that he has released the final batch of clemency decisions for petitions filed under previous administrations. Now all clemency petitions that are pending before the governor were filed while he was in office.

The backlog of clemency decisions was created under former Governor Rod Blagojevich. During his six years in office, he only decided on around 1,000 petitions. The rest were simply ignored and allowed to pile up. When Blagojevich was removed from office, roughly 3,000 sat pending for incoming Governor Pat Quinn.

Former Governor Quinn acted on 4,928 petitions during his six years in office, granting 1,795 of them. Quinn's batches of clemency decisions typically mixed newer petitions in with older ones. So while Quinn decided on more petitions than the backlog he inherited, some petitions filed under Blagojevich remained when Quinn left office.

Gov. Rauner, by contrast, has mostly decided on petitions by order of filing. In his two years as governor, Rauner has acted on 2,333 clemency petition, granted 80 pardons and three commutations. With yesterday's release, Rauner has completely worked through the remaining petitions filed before he took office.

In the AP article, Rauner acknowledged that he is not as good as Quinn was when it comes to granting petitions, but defended himself by pointing at governors in some other states who are even less merciful.

In advance of the Thanksgiving holiday, today Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner released his 13th batch of clemency decisions. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, eight pardons were granted and over 200 were denied.

The highlight from this group of pardon decisions is Patrick McNamee, a man convicted of Reckless Homicide before going on to become a pilot in the Air Force. The Sun-Times article has more details about his interesting story.

Based on these numbers, it is likely that Gov. Rauner has completely worked through the clemency backlog that built up under former governor Rod Blagojevich and carried through to former governor Pat Quinn.

One of my clients was also included in the eight. So, congratulations to that person, to Mr. McNamee, and to the others that received their pardons today!

Today, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn decided on 124 pardon petitions, granting 38 and denying 86.  Some of the offenses that received the pardons included burglary, forgery, and various drug convictions.  Since taking office, Quinn has granted 1,113 petitions for executive clemency and denied 1,934.

As always, a congratulations must go out to those that had their clemency petition granted!  A lot of vetting is done to ensure that those who receive clemency have truly rehabilitated, so if you are lucky enough to receive it then it was well earned.  This Labor Day weekend will mark the beginning of the next chapter in your life without a criminal record.

As we pointed out in June, the Illinois legislature passed a bill that changed the Criminal Identification Act to make most misdemeanor violent crimes eligible for sealing.  Last week, Governor Quinn signed the bill, as was expected, officially making it law.  The new law will take effect on January 1, 2015.

Prior to this change, anybody convicted of a violent crime (misdemeanor or felony) could not expunge or seal that case.  The only option was executive clemency.  Now that another avenue has opened for those sentenced to misdemeanor level violent offenses, it will help many to pass the background checks that had been standing in the way of them moving on with their lives.