Articles Posted in Clemency

On Good Friday of this year (March 30, 2018), Governor Bruce Rauner granted six (6) individuals Executive Clemency with Authorization to Expunge their decades old convictions. Three (3) convictions were for burglary, one (1) for retail theft, one (1) for unlawful delivery of a controlled substance and one (1) for possession of a stolen motor vehicle. One of the burglary cases dated back to 1959! The most recent conviction was for burglary, as well, but occurred in 1993. Three (3) of the cases were out of Cook County, one (1) from Massac County, one (1) from Peoria County and finally, one (1) from Randolph County.  Congratulations to these undoubtedly deserving individuals for receiving a true second chance.

Last Friday, Governor Rauner granted another seven (7) clemency petitions to individuals with convictions dating as far back as 1985 and as recent as 2008. Each of these undoubtedly deserving individuals had one or more convictions for crimes ranging from possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver to burglary and unlawful use of a weapon, from criminal trespass to vehicle to forgery, and from domestic battery to theft/retail theft. The Illinois counties where these now pardoned convictions occurred spanned from Cook to McLean to Winnebago.

Once again, I am pleased to write that one of my own clients received a pardon with authorization to expunge with restoration of his 2nd amendment rights i.e., his ability to own and possess firearms has now been restored. I am of course proud of my work but suffice it to say that I could not have achieved such a result without such a fantastic and deserving client.

The best part of my job is calling a client who has been waiting for years on a decision from the Governor to report that his/her Petition for Executive Clemency with Authorization to Expunge has finally been granted. If you are in need of help to clear off your criminal record, please consider calling me for a free case analysis, to see if one day I may be able to deliver such fantastic news to you!

Last Friday, June 30, 2017 Governor Rauner addressed another batch of Illinois clemency petitions, granting 10 pardons with authorization to expunge and denying 104. The pardons that were issued were for cases ranging in dates from 1981 to 2000 and were for offenses including aggravated assault, aggravated battery, retail theft, theft, forgery and assorted felony drug crimes. I am beyond pleased to report that 1 of my clients is included in this batch of 10 successful petitions; congratulations to him and to the 9 other undoubtedly deserving candidates.

In what may be his final act of executive clemency this year, Governor Rauner has commuted the sentences of just two individuals and pardoned with authorization to expunge three others on December 23, 2016. With regards to the commutations of sentences, both cases were from Bureau County in 1994 and were convictions for trafficking a controlled substance; one sentence was originally for ninety-five years and was reduced to fifty years, the other sentence was for sixty years and was also reduced to fifty years.  As for the pardons with authorization to expunge, the earliest case was a 1985 Cook County case ending in a conviction for manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance, then there was a 1994 Effingham County case which terminated with a conviction for retail theft and finally, a 2002 Henry County case which resulted in a burglary conviction.  One hundred ninety-five petitions for executive clemency were denied on December 23, 2016.

As has previously been reported, Governor Rauner has now cleared the backlog of petitions left behind by his predecessors and is now working on current petitions for executive clemency.  While I am very pleased with the speed in which Governor Rauner is deciding these types of petitions, I can only hope that he expands his criteria for relief, as I personally know of multiple deserving individuals who have been denied in the past two years.

Governor Rauner released yet another batch of clemency decisions the day before Thanksgiving (11/23/2016), granting 8 individuals pardons and denying 152. One of the individuals pardoned was a Vietnam pilot convicted of reckless homicide in DuPage County for a car crash that happened over 60 years ago. Another pardoned individual had a 1965 felony forgery conviction in Douglas County.  The other pardoned offenses included manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance, obstruction of justice, burglary and battery and the offense dates spanned from 1992 to 2005.  All 8 of the pardon recipients were granted authorization to expunge their respective cases.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

On October 7, 2016, Governor Rauner decided a total of 240 clemency petitions, granting 5 and denying 235. Back on September 2, 2016, Governor Rauner decided a total of 126 petitions for executive clemency, granting 8 and denying 118.  Presently, there are less than 50 petitions remaining to be decided from previous administrations.  The October 7th batch of grants included crimes such as obstruction of justice, manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and burglary while the September 2nd batch of grants included both violent and non-violent crimes such as domestic battery, aggravated battery, attempted armed robbery, burglary, criminal damage to property and deceptive practices.  A pardon with authorization to expunge a conviction categorized as a violent offense is traditionally much more difficult to obtain than an act of clemency relating to a non-violent offense; it encourages me greatly to see violent offenses included in the list of clemency grants in that Governor Rauner must be carefully considering the facts and circumstances of each individual petitioner and petition for clemency before deciding whether or not that person is deserving of this so-called “extraordinary” remedy.  People can and do change and many of us do indeed deserve a second chance sometimes.

Last Friday, July 1, 2016, Governor Rauner granted clemency requests of 7 petitioners: 6 in the form of executive clemency with authorization to expunge and 1 in the form of a commutation of sentence.  With regard to the pardons and expungements, the underlying crimes ranged from residential burglary to robbery, from keeping a gambling place and gambling to theft, and from delivery of a controlled substance to manufacture and delivery of cannabis. The counties at issue were Cook, Lee, McLean, Macon and Will and the years of the offenses ranged from 1977 to 2006.  None of the 6 pardons and expungements authorized restoration of firearm ownership/possession rights which may have been forfeited by the convictions; in Illinois, a petitioner must proactively ask for his or her firearm possession and/or ownership rights to be restored by the Governor prior to being able to obtain a Firearms Owner Identification (FOID) Card.

In this most recent batch of decisions, Governor Rauner denied 150 Petitions for Executive Clemency.  I have not yet seen any information concerning the types of cases that were denied relief. I do know that this total group of 157 petitions had some dating back to the 2012 docket and that there are still approximately 500 undecided petitions remaining from previous administrations.

In keeping with the tradition of releasing clemency petition decisions on or around major holidays, Governor Rauner granted 8 individuals clemency with authorization to expunge (1 with the authorization to seek a Firearms Owner Identification Card) on Friday, March 25, 2016 – Good Friday. 152 clemency petitions were denied as part of this same batch of decisions. These decisions lower the backlog of pending petitions left by previous administrations to approximately 650 petitions. Of course, however, new petitions for executive clemency are being submitted each quarter.

With regard to the 8 granted petitions for executive clemency with authorization to expunge, the underlying cases ranged from 1980 to 2002, and included offenses such as domestic battery, theft, forgery and burglary.