On or about December 6, 2011 Illinois Governor Quinn released decisions on a total of two hundred six pending applications for pardons, including petitions for executive clemency, according to local news source CBS Chicago. Specifics about the type of petitions the Governor granted were scarce; for example, I was not able to find details about how many petitions for executive clemency were granted or denied, or even more specifically, how many of those were petitions for executive clemency with authorization to expunge. The articles I found did mention, however, that at least one previously convicted and currently incarcerated man’s sentence was commuted without granting him a full pardon.
This news is encouraging for the thousands of individuals still awaiting decisions on their own petitions for executive clemency with or without authorization to expunge. Of course, we’d all like to see more progress being made on the backlog of petitions, but this is most certainly better than former Illinois Governor Blagojevich did while he was in office. Keep plugging away, Governor Quinn and thanks for your efforts in this regard!