Illinois Clemency Landscape in 2022: What a Difference a Year Makes During an Election Cycle
In both 2020 and 2021, Governor Pritzker was not shy about using his clemency pen. In 2021 alone, Gov. Pritzker granted 99 pardons and commuted 21 prison sentences. Of the latter number, all but three petitioners were released from prison immediately. The other three had their sentences shortened.
Are Sentence Commutations a Thing of the Past in Illinois?
With the first half of this year in the rearview mirror, it is doubtful Gov. Pritzker will post as robust clemency numbers as he did in 2021.
Through the first six months of this year, the governor has not commuted any prison sentences and only granted 11 pardons. By the same time last year, the governor had commuted six sentences and issued 22 pardons.
Contrary to previous gubernatorial administrations (Democratic and Republican), Governor Pritzker does not put out a press release whenever he rules on a batch of clemency petitions – in fact, only once has he done so.
Nevertheless, the governor received substantial press coverage (both positive and negative) for his unprecedented willingness to commute prison sentences. No Illinois governor in recent history has done so.
In 2020, during the first few months of COVID, word began to spread that prison sentences were being commuted. No knows for sure if COVID was a motivating factor in the governor’s controversial move. To no one’s surprise, Republican politicians were quick to criticize the governor’s actions while criminal justice reform advocates (like myself) were elated.
With Republicans poised to win back seats in the U.S. Congress, the last thing Gov. Pritzker wants to do is give Republicans cannon fodder to use against him or any other Democratic candidate for office in a critical election year.
It’s hard to say if Gov. Pritzker has closed the door to granting more sentence commutations. We likely won’t know the answer to that question until after the November election.
The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same
Even if this year’s clemency grants drop off, some things will remain constant. A staunch opponent of guns, Gov. Pritzker rarely reinstates gun rights to those he pardons. In 2021, the governor reinstated gun rights to only three people. So far this year, no one has had their gun rights reinstated and in all but two of the cases pardoned the crimes were eligible to seal. The two cases that couldn’t be sealed involved domestic battery crimes.
Due to the absence of clemency denial data, I’m unable to compute the governor’s clemency approval rate for 2021 or the first half of 2022.
Despite their being fewer tea leaves in the bottom of the proverbial tea cup, the following can still be said about the clemency process in 2022:
If you want to reinstate your gun rights, don’t petition for clemency from the current governor;
The older the case, the less likely the local prosecutor’s office will object and torpedo your odds of receiving a pardon or sentence commutation; and
No Illinois governor has pardoned someone convicted of a sex offense.
Concluding this post on a positive note, it is important to remember that people who have a criminal record in Illinois are far better off today than they were prior to August 2017. That was the year the Illinois General Assembly agreed to give more people an opportunity to ask that their criminal record be sealed.
As a consequence, most people no longer need to seek a pardon because their criminal record is eligible to seal -- a process that takes far less time and faces fewer obstacles.
If you’re unsure whether you need a pardon (or are a good candidate for one), please schedule a free telephone consultation with me. Once I know what your personal and professional goals are, I can let you know what remedy is best to pursue. No one should ever give up on their dreams without first trying.