Governor Rauner grants 8 clemency petitions on Good Friday 2016

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.