Andrew Zajac
A Chicago federal judge has told Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich that he can’t sit indefinitely on pardon applications.
Ruling in a suit brought by ten felons seeking executive clemency, Judge Joan Gotschall said the Illinois constitution requires that the governor shall decide each application, thus requiring him to make decisions “within a reasonable period of time.”
Seven of the plaintiffs in case have already had their applications rejected by Blagojevich. But Gotschall dismissed their claim that the governor’s adverse decisions were retaliation for filing the suit.
Here’s Gotschall’s decision: Download file
The use of state and federal pardon powers is of growing interest to lawyers and advocates of prisoners because of the sheer numbers of people who have been imprisoned and who face eventual re-entry into society with blots on their records. Rob Acton, an attorney with Cabrini Green Legal Aid, which represented the plaintiffs in their clemency hearings, offers this essay Download file on the need for speedier decisions.
Margaret Love, the Justice Department’s chief pardon attorney from 1990-1997, says the decision has no implications for badly backlogged federal pardon applicants.
“Though, Love said, “it is interesting in showing that federal pardon applicants evidently have no way of making the President decide their cases, and the last two presidents (Bush and Clinton) have been particularly dilatory in their processing of pardon cases.”
More than 3,000 clemency petitions had piled up that the federal pardon attorney’s office as of last October 1, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Elected officials vested with the power — governors and presidents — sometimes are reluctant to use it because of the potential for political damage if a pardon recipient commits another crime.
As for Blagojevich, Love said she hopes the governor will take the court’s ruling “as an opportunity. It’s an important part of his job.”
