Tag: Quinn

Is pardon making a comeback? Probably not, but law reform may be

A recent issue of Governing Magazine reports that pardoning is “making a comeback” after decades of neglect.  It would be nice if it were true. But the evidence of comeback is thin. Almost all of the jurisdictions where pardoning is thriving today are the same ones where it was thriving a decade ago.  In a dozen states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Nebraska, South Carolina and South Dakota, pardon has never been neglected, much less abandoned by responsible officials. In these jurisdictions and a handful of others, pardon has deep roots in the justice system and is supported by accountable institutions of government. It is certainly true that Pat Quinn of Illinois and Jerry Brown of California have made generous use of the power of their office after years in which the pardon power in their states languished unused.  Terry McAuliffe of Virginia is a newcomer to the small group of governors who evidently feel that pardoning is a responsibility of office.  All three are to be commended for it.  But three swallows do not make a summer. For the most part pardoning in the United States remains a timid exercise in tokenism, and the vitality of pardon in most jurisdictions still depends on the personal predilections of the particular elected chief executive.  Most are not very interested in an activity that has few rewards and many pitfalls.   Our President is a case in point.  A number of current governors have refused to use their pardon power at all, some invoking bogus separation of powers arguments (Scott of Wisconsin), others making empty promises (Hickenlooper of Colorado). The Marshall Project recently published an article asking if pardon was still the third rail of American politics. Apparently most governors think it is, whatever changes there may have been in the public mood. Legislative alternatives to pardon It seems to me that if governors and presidents are reluctant to use the power of their office to temper what Alexander Hamilton called the “necessary severity” of the criminal code, they have an obligation to see that the legal system addresses the needs pardon serves. Ohio Governor John Kasich did that when he supported legislation to authorize courts to issue “certificates of qualification for employment” to help people with convictions overcome legal restrictions that bar them from certain jobs.   Governors in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota and Vermont have also recently signed legislation giving courts the power to do what they are evidently reluctant to do themselves.  That is an acceptable alternative approach to governing, both in theory and in practice. Indeed, pardon was never supposed to be a substitute for law reform, and courts or administrative agencies are likely to be fairer and more accessible than an elected official. Unfortunately, there is no indication that the Obama Administration is interested in supporting legislation that would ameliorate the adverse effects of a criminal record, though this is one of the few areas in which there is bipartisan support for reform in Congress.  The President’s failure to give criminal justice reform more than a passing mention in the State of the Union address, and only in the context of police/community relations, was discouraging. Many U.S. jurisdictions are attempting to deal with the problems created by mass incarceration, by reducing the number of people who go to prison and by improving social services to keep those who do from going back.  Mass conviction has produced a separate and less tractable set of problems, including proliferation of collateral consequences that discourage rehabilitation, and creation of a permanent class of second class citizens defined by their criminal record. The laboratories of democracy have not yet produced a single legislative solution that can command consensus.  Reform efforts in some jurisdictions involve limiting public access to criminal records through expungement or sealing, an approach that has both practical and theoretical drawbacks.  Other jurisdictions have adopted the more transparent judicial certificates recommended by the 2010 Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act and the 2014 Model Penal Code: Sentencing. Indiana’s approach combining the two may be the wave of the future. With a clear problem demanding a legislative solution, the recommendation of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers looks appealing: The three branches of government, on the federal, state, and local levels, should undertake a comprehensive effort to promote restoration of rights and status after conviction.   This is a major effort that requires a multi-faceted approach.  It should include enactment of laws to circumscribe or repeal existing collateral consequences, and  a resolve to stop enacting new ones. More fundamentally, government entities, the legal profession, the media and the business community must promote a change in the national mindset to embrace concepts of redemption and forgiveness, including a public education campaign to combat erroneous and harmful stereotypes and labels applied to individuals who have at one point or another committed a crime.  As a cornerstone of this movement, the United States and the states and territories should establish a “National Restoration of Rights Day” to recognize the need to give individuals who have successfully fulfilled the terms of a criminal sentence the opportunity to move on with their lives. This will take leadership at a national level.  Given the support for collateral consequences reform in Congress and in governor’s mansions across the country, perhaps we will get it. Read more

A tale of two (or three) pardoners from Illinois

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn spent his first and last days in office considering pardons.  On April 10, 2009, referring to the hundreds of cases left untouched by his impeached predecessor Rod Blagojevich, he declared that “Justice delayed is justice denied,” and promised that “My administration is fully-committed to erasing this shameful log jam of cases in a methodical manner and with all deliberate speed.” Quinn was as good as his word.  His interest in erasing the pardon backlog never flagged, even during his two reelection campaigns.  By the time he left office earlier this week, he had acted on more than 5,000 pardon applications and granted full pardons to 1,789 people, more than any other Illinois governor in history.  In his final week he also pardoned a man found innocent by the courts, making him eligible for compensation from the state, and commuted a number of prison sentences, freeing two men whose guilt had been drawn into question. Far from being critical, the press was full of praise for his courage and compassion.  It was a fitting way to ring the curtain down on a tenure that saw the pardon power restored to a respectable and fully operational role in the Illinois criminal justice system. Governor Quinn told the Tribune that he had tried throughout his time in office to rectify his predecessor’s indifference toward clemency requests: “there are a lot of cases where people made mistakes in their youth . . . and they shouldn’t have to suffer the rest of their life with the repercussions for jobs, for scholarships, for just their peace of mind. I understand that.” After the word got out that Quinn was interested in granting pardons, the rate of application increased, so that on his final day there were still 2,000 applications in the pipeline.  But all in all it was a record to marvel at. A majority of Quinn’s pardons involved non-violent crimes such as drug possession and theft, and came to his desk with a recommendation from the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. The PRB holds public hearings four times a year at which pardon applicants make their case for relief, and then makes confidential recommendations to the governor.  I have some familiarity with that process and those who manage it, and can attest to its accessibility, productivity, and integrity.  The PRB served Pat Quinn well, and it will serve his successor well. President Obama’s pardoning record presents quite a contrast.  So does the administrative apparatus that supports it, and the public reaction to his use of the power to date.  In six years he has granted only 64 full pardons, and denied 1,629 pardon applications.  (He has also granted 20 requests for commutation of sentence, and denied 7,378 requests.)   This puts his favorable pardon grant rate at 4% (Quinn’s was 37%.)  He has made fewer pardon grants and denied more applications than either of his two predecessors at this point in their tenures:  President Bush had granted 113 pardons (about 10% of those acted on) and President Clinton had granted 108 (about 20%).  Indeed, President Obama’s grant rate is presently the lowest since the Justice Department began keeping clemency statistics 1881.  Of course this can still change, since there are more than 800 pardon applications currently pending for consideration — although, predictably, the rate of application has dropped off in the last year since potential applicants are discouraged from making the effort in light of the unlikelihood of success. If their pardon grant rates reflect the importance each man places on giving those who have served their sentences a second chance, Quinn and Obama could not be more different. The only way in which their pardoning is similar is that they both seem to favor non-violent drug and theft cases. Governor Quinn has gotten a lot of public credit for his pardoning, including for the risky grants made in his final days.  In many respects, his approach to using his constitutional power resembles that of another Illinois politician, one who served long ago and on a national stage.  Abraham Lincoln’s pardons are the stuff of legend.  Indeed, he was so susceptible to supplications for mercy that his attorney general Edward Bates felt it necessary to interpose himself between his boss and those seeking presidential favor. (Thus began the system for administering the president’s power that is still with us today — though it is now far less accessible and reliable than it was for its first hundred years, and considerably less so than the Illinois process that protected Governor Quinn so well.) Let us hope that Illinois’s new Governor Rauner has heard the public applause for his predecessor’s record of pardoning, and that he will want to continue the practice of issuing grants at regular intervals throughout the year.  Perhaps President Obama has been listening too, though he does not have the benefit of a transparent and accountable administrative process to encourage him.  And, with a few conspicuous exceptions, no one has publicly held him to account.  In light of the President’s stated interest in considering prisoner petitions, at this point it is entirely possible that for the first time in almost a century there will be more sentence commutations issued by a president than post-sentence pardons. 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Despite pardoning hundreds, out-going Illinois governor may leave significant clemency backlog

When disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was removed from office in 2009, he left behind more than the ugly controversy that would eventually lead to a 14-year federal prison sentence: he also left behind a 7-year backlog of over 2,500 clemency recommendations from the state’s Prisoner Review Board (“PRB”).   Blago’s successor Pat Quinn declared in April 2009 his intention of “erasing the shameful logjam of cases in a methodical matter and with all deliberate speed,” stating that “Justice delayed is justice denied.”  Since then, Governor Quinn has disposed of a total of 3,358 clemency petitions, granting more than a third of them.  Of the 1,239 persons pardoned, most have also had their records expunged. However, despite his admirable efforts to restore regularity to Illinois pardoning, it appears that Quinn may leave his successor almost as large a backlog as he himself inherited.  This is because, during  his six years in office, the PRB has forwarded over 3,000 additional recommendations to the governor’s desk, most of which have not been decided.  Unless Quinn somehow finds a way to dispose of this still-large backlog of cases between now and January, Blagojevich’s irresponsible neglect of his pardoning responsibilities will have created a kink in the administration of the pardon power in Illinois that may not be worked out for years to come. If long waits have become the new normal for pardon applicants in Illinois, those seeking relief from collateral consequences would do well to consider the alternatives available under state law.  For example, Illinois courts are authorized to grant Certificates of Relief from Disabilities, which avoid numerous licensing restrictions and shield employers from negligent hiring liability; and, Certificates of Good Conduct, which relieve mandatory bars to employment and other opportunities and certify the recipient’s rehabilitation.  Courts are also authorized to seal and expunge records in certain cases. You can read about the latest round of Governor Quinn’s pardons in this Chicago Tribune article.  More information about relief and restoration of rights in Illinois can be found in the NACDL Restoration of Rights resource here. UPDATE:  In his final days in office, Governor Quinn pardoned more than 300 people, and denied about 1000 petitions. He left about 2000 petitions for his successor to act on.  Let us hope he has a similarly progressive view of pardoning. Read more