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!

Ahead of Columbus Day weekend, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner released his twelfth batch of executive clemency decisions. In this batch, five petitions were granted and 235 were denied. According to the Governor's Office, fewer than 50 petitions remain from prior administrations.

Congratulations to those that received their long-awaited pardons! For those that are denied, I'm sure this will be a disappointment, but remember that you can always re-petition in the future. Keep working to rebuild your life and community, and eventually your pardon may come!

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner released his eleventh batch of clemency decisions ahead of Labor Day weekend. Included were eight clemency petitions granted and 118 denied. All eight clemency actions came in the form of a pardon with authorization to expunge the criminal record. The pardoned convictions included burglary, domestic battery, deceptive practice, criminal damage to property, attempted armed robbery, and aggravated battery.

According to the Governor's Office, there are fewer than 400 petitions remaining from the backlog that had built up under prior administrations.

As always, a warm congratulations goes out to all those receiving their pardons!

Yesterday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law which will eliminate the requirement that a person have no convictions on his record in order to expunge a case. Under the old law, a conviction for even the smallest infraction (for example, a fine on a ticket for underage drinking) would mean that a person could not expunge anything else from his criminal record, even if those charges were dropped.

Although that person could have sealed the dismissed case, there are certain circumstances where an expungement is necessary for furthering someone's goals. Now, the law will determine the eligibility to expunge based solely on the case itself, rather than also on the person.

The new law will also waive the filing fees for many expungement petitions in Cook County during 2017. Petitioners in Cook County will not have to pay filing fees when the case(s) sought to be expunged resulted in acquittal or dismissal. This provision is set to expire at the end of 2017.

This afternoon, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner released his tenth batch of executive clemency decisions ahead of the 4th of July weekend. For this batch, Rauner decided on 157 petitions, granting seven and denying 150. Of the seven granted, six came in the form of pardon with authorization to expunge, while the other was a commutation of sentence. According to the governor's office, roughly 500 petitions remain in the backlog from previous administrations.

Congratulations to those receiving clemency, and happy Independence Day to all!

According to Michael Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Times, former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. recently sent a letter to Chicago Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) criticizing Beale’s proposed ordinance to add regulation for rideshare companies Uber and Lyft. Beale’s proposed ordinance would, among other things, mandate drivers for Uber and Lyft to submit to fingerprint background checks.
 
Holder posits that the fingerprint-based background check can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color. He notes that the FBI records from which the fingerprint checks are drawn are often incomplete and do not always show the results of the arrest. Because people of color are statistically more likely to pick up an arrest, their communities would be disproportionately impacted, even when (as is often the case) those arrests do not result in a conviction.
 
I support Holder’s criticisms. In my work, people often come to me with their FBI records looking for an expungement or sealing. It is actually relatively rare for the records to comprehensively contain all the information about what happened in a case. They can be a good starting point for me to figure out what is on a person’s record, but they are mostly worthless for determining eligibility to expunge or seal because they so often don’t list the outcomes of the cases.
 
The ironic part of this is that Uber and Lyft already perform background checks on potential drivers. Many clients have come to me needing to expunge or seal their record specifically because they didn’t pass the background check for these companies. The difference though is that those background checks are designed for employment purposes and therefore typically obtain the disposition information.

Today, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner released his ninth batch of executive clemency decisions just before the Easter weekend. Within this batch of petitions, he granted eight and denied 152. According to the Governor's Office, about 650 remain from the backlog of petitions he inherited when taking office.

Congratulations to those that received their pardons, and good luck to those still waiting!

Tuesday is primary election day in Illinois, and here in Chicago one candidate is dealing with the same struggle many of my clients face—trying to obtain or keep a job despite the stigma of a criminal record. In a hotly contested race for the 5th District Illinois Assembly Seat, voters received campaign mailers featuring an old mugshot photo of incumbent Rep. Ken Dunkin. The date stamp indicates the photo is nearly 20 years old. In addition to the mugshot, the Sun-Times reported that the mailer listed information about the alleged crimes that may be incomplete and inaccurate.

Dunkin’s opponent, Juliana Stratton, insists her campaign had no involvement with sending the mailer. Nonetheless, she has failed to denounce the scare-mongering tactic. She told the Sun-Times that while she’s “an advocate for a second chance” she believes candidates for public office should be held to “a higher standard.”

While there may be some validity to her point, a mailer that paints a candidate in broad strokes as a criminal thug clearly seeks to provoke a knee-jerk disgusted reaction from voters. This type of labelling of individuals as criminals or felons without any explanation or context for their mistakes is what we at the Bryant Chavez Law Office fight against every day. For a politician like Dunkin, it’s one issue among many that citizens will use to decide whether to vote for him. For ordinary people applying for jobs, it often means outright and immediate rejection. Dunkin is lucky he has a public platform for explaining himself. Regular people with criminal records do not, which is why it’s so important that we have opportunities for reformed individuals to expunge or seal their old cases.

In advance of the long holiday weekend, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner released his eighth batch  of clemency decisions yesterday, granting two and denying 98. According to the Governor's office, roughly 800 petitions remain in the backlog of clemency decisions.

Congratulations to those that received their long-awaited clemency! We hope to see more joining you soon.