(CHICAGO) Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner says he has cleared a backlog of clemency requests left over from the administrations of Governors Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn. Rauner told “The Big John and Ray Show” on WLS that he has acted on over two thousand petitions, many of which his predecessors failed to address. “I was handling some clemency requests that were made by ex-offenders from 13 years ago. I mean, that’s just not right. That’s insulting to the individual involved, that’s insulting to their family, they wanna get on with their life and understand what their future options are. I’m frankly embarrassed. The way clemency requests have been dealt with in state government is the way so much of our state government has been done. It’s just poorly done.”
Rauner granted just three percent of the clemency requests on his desk, but he told WLS he did give adequate consideration of each request. “We really treat ’em with thorough analysis. And in the end we are looking for people who take responsibility for their mistake or their crime. We look at the nature of the crime. Any other bad behavior that the person ever exhibited. How long it’s been since the crime.”
Clemency is a legal request that defendants make for forgiveness of a past crime, or leniency.
@ 2016 WLS-AM 890
