According to the WNIJ news article, the Governor’s Office says it has developed a process to review clemency petitions on a regular basis. This is good news as it means that we won't have to wait extended periods of time between releases. Hopefully in the coming batches, we will see more pardons granted.
Today, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner released 59 executive clemency decisions, granting two of them. This marks the first batch of clemency decisions under Rauner, who took office in January.
According to the WNIJ news article, the Governor’s Office says it has developed a process to review clemency petitions on a regular basis. This is good news as it means that we won't have to wait extended periods of time between releases. Hopefully in the coming batches, we will see more pardons granted.
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In Governor Quinn's last day in office, he released his final batch of decisions on clemency petitions. The final batch contains 43 granted and 119 denied. Quinn's total numbers for his time as governor are 4,928 clemency decisions, with 1,795 granted and 3,133 denied.
That is tremendous work for Quinn's six years in Springfield. The Bryant Chavez Law Office would like to extend its gratitude to Quinn for taking his pardon power seriously and showing the mercy and compassion that is fit for the Chief Executive of Illinois. Thank you! Congratulations to the 43 that were able to get their petitions granted today! I am sure the pardons are befitting the years of hard work and rehabilitation you have put into improving your lives. For the rest that are still pending, good luck and may we see Governor Rauner live up to the standard set by his predecessor! Today Governor Quinn released his penultimate batch of pardon decisions, granting 232 and denying 262. Since taking office, Quinn has now acted on 4,766 clemency petitions with 1,752 being granted.
This batch is notable as it includes Quinn's first pardon based on innocence. That contrasts with the vast majority of pardons which are granted to those who have rehabilitated and hope to move on with their lives having their rights restored and criminal records clean for background checks. Quinn also told The Associated Press that he will release one more batch on Monday. So for those that are still waiting, keep your fingers crossed as clemency may still be coming to you soon. For those that were included in this batch, congratulations! Governor Quinn is continuing his charge to whittle down the backlog of petitions for executive clemency. The New Year's Eve batch has 310 decisions, with 102 being granted. That brings Quinn's new total of clemency decisions to 4,272 since taking office. He has granted 1,520 and denied 2,752.
Of the 102 clemency petitions granted, three were for abolitionists convicted in the 19th century of harboring runaway slaves. As we pointed out last year, Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon worked to get these pardon petitions filed on behalf of the abolitionists. For all those granted clemency on this last day of 2014, congratulations! Now 2015 can be the start of the next chapter of your lives as you say goodbye to days long ago. In one of his final batches of executive clemency decisions before leaving office, Governor Quinn granted 179 petitions and denied 425 this Christmas Eve. That brings Quinn's total number of clemency decisions to 3,962 with 1,418 of them granted.
A separate Christmas Eve article in the Chicago Tribune examined the state of clemency petitions in Illinois, while detailing a couple of petitioners seeking pardons based on their claims of innocence. Although Quinn has a good track record of granting pardons for petitioners showing rehabilitation, he has been far more hesitant to grant pardons declaring the innocence of those wrongfully convicted. The article is well worth the read, and not just because I am quoted in it (though that never hurts). Congratulations to all of you receiving clemency on this holiday! Now that you can move on with your rights restored and your convictions expunged, I am sure that this will always be remembered as a very merry Christmas. Now that Illinois has elected a new governor into office, a big concern for many is what will be Bruce Rauner’s position with regard to executive clemency petitions. With the last two governors, Illinois has seen opposite ends of the spectrum for mercy of those rehabilitated from their criminal records. Former governor Blagojevich ignored clemency petitions, allowing a backlog of over 2,500 to build up under his watch. Governor Quinn, on the other hand, has done a very good job of chipping away at that backlog by granting pardons throughout the entirety of his tenure. Since taking office, Governor Quinn has decided on 3,358 clemency petitions, granting 1,239.
So where will governor-elect Rauner be on the spectrum? Based on recent statements, he should land closer to Quinn than to Blagojevich. In an editorial by the The State Journal-Register, in which they call for continued action on the clemency backlog, the paper states that governor-elect Rauner “intends to make clemency and pardon decisions a priority for his administration.” Rauner’s spokesman, Mike Schrimpf, recently told the The State Journal-Register, “(Rauner) will thoughtfully review requests for clemency and implement a fair process for all parties involved.” We expect Rauner to hold true to this promise while in office. It is encouraging to hear that he understands that the executive clemency power, which is a responsibility imposed by the Illinois Constitution, is one that should be used to help the rehabilitated people of this State. Obviously, words are meaningless unless his actions follow up on them. However, at least we know that he appreciates the importance of the pardon power and that he holds the livelihoods of many individuals in his hands. On the eve of Thanksgiving Day, Governor Pat Quinn released one of his last batches of clemency decisions. Included in this group are 126 granted and 185 denied. This brings Governor Quinn's all time total number of clemency decisions to 3,358, with 1,239 of them being granted.
Because the backlog of petitions was so big under former Governor Blagojevich, Quinn still has many petitions that are pending before him. Hopefully, he will continue to do a good job of chipping away at the backlog in his final months in office. In that same vein, we also call on Governor-elect Rauner to pick up where Governor Quinn left off in showing mercy for those rehabilitated folks that have moved on from a criminal background. Congratulations to those that received their long-awaited pardon on this holiday weekend! Those 126 receiving clemency will certainly have one more big item to be thankful for. In a recent op-ed in the Sun-Times, attorney Jorge Montes urged the governor to use his pardon power to assist people facing unjust deportations. As a former chairman of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, Montes can speak on good authority about who are worthy pardon candidates.
It turns out that many individuals who are facing deportation due to having a criminal record are exemplary candidates for executive clemency: law-abiding, tax-paying residents involved with their communities who committed a minor crime years ago. But due to aggressive federal immigration policies, these individuals could be deported, sent far away from their established roots and family ties in the U.S. The Governor of Illinois has the power to help right these wrongs. He can follow the lead of former Governor David Paterson in New York, who made a special appeal for such pardon applicants. As he said at the time: "Some of our immigration laws, particularly with respect to deportation, are embarrassingly and wrongly inflexible. ... In New York we believe in renewal. In New York, we believe in rehabilitation." In my opinion that's very well put, and I'd like to think that in Illinois we believe the same. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing an ordinance to help those with a criminal record move on from their past. A new Illinois law set to go into effect on January 1 will ban businesses with 15 or more employees from inquiring about the criminal histories of job applicants until after they have been deemed qualified. Emanuel's ordinance would apply that same restriction to small businesses in Chicago.
The new law and ordinance would not hide a person's criminal record. Those businesses still can (and will) perform background checks on the potential hires. However, the change in procedure will stop those businesses from using people's criminal records as an initial filter for weeding out applications. Now a business will have to think hard about whether they want to let a great candidate go just because of a mistake in her past. 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. |
We provide criminal defense legal services in Illinois, focusing on the expungement and sealing of criminal records.
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