While it may be too early to say this decisively, it certainly looks as though Governor Rauner is attempting to make clemency decisions a monthly activity during his 2016 tenure. Yesterday, he decided an additional 100 clemency petitions, granting 2 individuals pardons with authorization to expunge and denying the other 98 petitions for relief. I will say once again I am very pleased with the speed with which Governor Rauner is addressing the pending petitions, however, I am all but certain there were more than 2 individuals deserving of relief in the batch of petitions that were reviewed by the Governor.
Of the 2 people who were fortunate enough to receive the coveted pardon authorizing expungement yesterday, one had a felony conviction for burglary stemming from a 1993 case and the other had received a sentence of court supervision on two misdemeanor charges dating back to 2007: fleeing/attempting to elude an officer and driving under the influence (DUI). Typically, a sentence of court supervision (assuming it stands in isolation on a person’s record) is expungeable without gubernatorial intervention, however, DUI cases are an exception to that rule under the Illinois Criminal Identification Act.