Arizona-Pardon

By statute, the governor’s authority to act depends upon receiving an affirmative recommendation from the board of executive clemency, which must conduct a public hearing and publish its recommendations to the governor with its reasons.  The governor must report pardons, with reasons, to the legislature.  Pardon relieves the legal consequences of conviction, but it does not expunge the record, and a pardoned conviction may be used as a predicate.  Since the 1980s, Arizona governors have granted only a handful of pardons a term.  As pardons have become increasingly rare the Board has heard fewer pardon cases.