Is Gov. J.B. Pritzker Pro Clemency? What His First-Term Numbers Reveal

 When Illinois Gov. Pritzker took over the helm from Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2019, clemency advocates were hopeful that the Democratic governor would breathe much needed life back into the state’s clemency apparatus.

During his first term in office (2019-2022), Gov. Pritzker developed no consistent pattern of grants. His first and last year in office, where few petitions were granted, bore little resemblance to the clemency rulings made during his second and third year (2020-2021) in office – the COVID years. 

One can only speculate how Gov. Pritzker would have acted during those years if there hadn’t been a worldwide pandemic. What we can do is wade through his grants and denials to answer this question: Is Gov. Pritzker Pro Clemency?

Gov. Pritzker’s Clemency Record: A Look at the Numbers

Grants v. Denials

At the end of his first term, Gov. Pritzker had granted 225 pardons[1] and 96 sentence commutations. He denied 1,486 clemency petitions.[2] His overall clemency grant rate was 17.7% (12.4% pardons, 5% sentence commutations).

To put these numbers in perspective, Gov. Pat Quinn’s overall grant rate was 37% at the end of his six years in office. By comparison, Gov. Bruce Rauner’s grant rate was a mere 6.6%.

Sentence Commutations Take Center Stage

Gov. Pritzker granted an unprecedented number of sentence commutations during his first term. In 2020 alone, he granted 67 sentence commutations -- 70% of the sum total granted. At the time Gov. Pritzker denied that his actions were motivated by prison detainee COVID deaths (in the months before a vaccine was available). It’s hard to imagine that COVID did not, consciously or unconsciously, factor into his decision-making calculus.

Aside from the number of commutations granted, another striking factor is who received commutations: 1) 29 grantees had life sentences, and 2) 30 grantees had been convicted of murder.[3] 

Not surprising, these numbers did not go unnoticed -- either by the local or national press or prison detainees and their families. In response, clemency filings spiked. During Gov. Pritzker’s first term, the number of new clemency filings peaked at 2,095 (2021) from a low of 454 filings (2019) before dropping to 1,154 (2022).       

Erecting a Backlog of Clemency Petitions

Unlike the prior two governors, there were no clemency petitions for Gov. Pritzker to rule on when he came into office. However, by the end of his first term, 2,131 petitions were waiting to be decided.[4]

The backlog highlights the fact that the clemency process can be painfully long. Last year, one family member told me that she hoped her brother’s pardon petition would be granted before their elderly mother died so she could die in peace. 

Few Gun Rights Reinstatements

Gov. Pritzker rarely reinstates gun rights to those he pardons. During his first term, Gov. Pritzker reinstated the gun rights of six pardon recipients.[5] There is nothing in the state’s clemency law barring a governor from using his or her authority as s/he sees fit.  

How Will Gov. Pritzker Use His Clemency Powers in the Future?

If the number of clemencies granted in 2023 is an indication of what Gov. Pritzker will do in 2024, he’ll be on track to grant both fewer pardons and sentence commutations in his second term.

In 2023, there were only 28 pardons[6] and 15 sentence commutations granted. To date, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board has yet to release clemency denial information for all of 2023.

What future predictions can be made based on Gov. Pritzker’s first-term activity:

• No one should expect to get their gun rights reinstated through the clemency process absent an underlying immigration issue;

• Clemency pardon candidates, in particular, should expect to wait in excess of a year or more for a decision;

• The odds of obtaining a pardon or sentence commutation for a felony sex crime are nonexistent; and

• It is doubtful Gov. Pritzker will have much time to review clemency petitions in 2024. With a presidential election and Chicago being the site of the Democratic party’s convention, the governor has a full political plate.

We may just have to wait until 2025 for another robust clemency season unless Gov. Pritzker defies expectations.

Concluding Musings

So, is Gov. Pritzker Pro Clemency? Truthfully, there isn’t a simple yes or no answer. If we use Gov. Quinn’s numbers as the bench mark, one can’t help be disappointed (setting aside Gov. Pritzker’s unprecedented sentence commutations).

No one has a crystal ball to see how Gov. Pritzker will exercise his clemency authority in the future. He still has time to borrow a page from Gov. Quinn’s clemency playbook, if he chooses.

And if Gov. Pritzker does borrow a page from Gov. Quinn, many well-deserving petitioners will finally realize their long-held dreams: obtaining a college degree, getting a professional license, or seeking legal residency. That’s something worth hoping for.

[1] This number does not include cannabis pardons granted pursuant to the state’s cannabis legalization law. These pardons were granted outside of the normal clemency process; no petition for clemency had to be filed in order to seek said relief.

[2] There are two types of clemency requests: a pardon and a sentence commutation. Pardons are sought by those who served their sentence and have been crime-free for a number of years. A sentence commutation is sought by someone (almost always serving a prison sentence) who is seeking to have his or her sentence shortened or reduced to time served (and one’s immediate release from prison).

Because Gov. Pritzker’s administration does not release detailed denial information, there is no way to accurately determine how many of his denials were for a pardon or a sentence commutation. That said, the vast majority of denials are probably sentence commutations. 

[3] One would be remiss in not giving a shout out to the Illinois Prison Project (IPP) for their clemency advocacy of prison detainees. Many of the men who had their sentences commuted were represented by IPP.

[4] The number of pending clemency petitions was calculated using data from the Illinois Prisoner Review Board’s (PRB) annual reports (2019-2022). Because the annual report only lists the number of clemency hearings held, as opposed to the number of clemency petitions filed, it is not clear if the number of hearings equals the number of petitions filed annually. In Illinois, clemency hearings are optional (the petitioner chooses whether to attend a public hearing before the PRB). That said, the PRB still needs to hold a “hearing” to vote on whether to make a non-binding recommendation (to the governor) on whether a petitioner should be granted a pardon or sentence commutation. For that reason, this article assumes that the number of clemency hearings is equal to the number of clemency petitions filed.

[5] Just looking at their names, it appears that five individuals may have sought a pardon to resolve an immigration issue. Petitioners seeking clemency for immigration purposes must receive a “full” petition (reinstatement of all rights lost, including gun rights) in order to favorably resolve their immigration issue.

[6] Gov. Pritzker also granted one pardon to someone based on his innocence.