The Wait Goes On: Illinois’ Clemency Report Card for 2025
Q: Did Governor Pritzker end up granting many clemency petitions in 2025?
Gov. Pritzker has granted fewer pardons and sentence commutations in his second term as governor. His clemency grant rate during his second term is 11%, 6.7% drop from his first-term grant percentage.
In 2025, Gov. Pritzker issued the fewest clemency decisions since 2019, issuing 73 pardons, 1 sentence commutation, and 99 denials.
As has been his practice in past years, the governor did not reinstate anyone's gun rights. Nor did he pardon or commute a sentence for a sex crime.
When I last reported on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s clemency efforts last October I observed that the governor was on track to issue the fewest clemency decisions (pardon or sentence commutations) since his first year (2019) as governor. I find no solace in saying I was right.
In 2025, Gov. Pritzker issued only 173 clemency decisions – well below the average number of rulings (575) issued during each of the last five years. Of that number, 99 were denials and 74 were grants.
As mentioned in previous blogs, there is no order in which petitions are selected for ruling. In 2025, petitions pending from 2020-2022 to 2024 were granted. Petitions pending from 2022-2025 were denied in 2025.
Gov. Pritzker issued 73 pardons and commuted one sentence in 2025. Since 2020-2021, the height of COVID, the governor has played it “safe” in commuting prison sentences. In 2022 and 2024, for example, he issued no sentence commutations.
Percentage of Pardons Declines During Gov. Pritzker’s Second Term
At the end of his first term (2019-2022), Gov. Pritzker issued 214 pardons and 96 sentence commutations, for a grant rate of 17.7% -- well above Gov. Rauner’s grant rate, which hovered between 5 and 6%.
But three years into his second term (2023-2025), Gov. Pritzker’s grant rate has dipped to 11%. A comparison of his grant numbers over a similar time period between the two terms – 2019 to 2022 and 2023 to 2025 -- tells the story.
Between 2019 and 2022, Gov. Pritzker granted 214 pardons and 96 sentence commutations. Between 2023 and 2025, Gov. Pritzker granted only 109 pardons and 16 sentence commutations.
Digging Through the Data
There are no new pearls of wisdom to excavate from last year’s clemency data since the governor’s rulings follow a consistent pattern.
All pardon recipients received permission to expunge their record. No one had his or her gun rights reinstated. No one was granted a pardon for a crime not eligible to seal (e.g., domestic violence, animal cruelty, sex offenses).
Eleven percent of the pardon recipients sought relief for a non-conviction, while just under 25% were pardoned for a misdemeanor conviction. Two-thirds of the pardon recipients had been convicted of a felony. The offenses most frequently granted a pardon in 2025: drugs, theft/burglary, and crimes involving obstructing justice.
Most of the governor’s denials (72 or 72.7%) were handed to petitioners seeking a sentence commutation. For nine petitioners, it was the second time they’d been denied clemency by Gov. Pritzker. In Illinois, there is no limit to how many times someone can apply for clemency.
Murder and sex offenses represented 63.6% of the governor’s commutation denials. Among the 27 pardon denials, sex and domestic battery offenses (misdemeanor and felony) represented just over half of the denials, followed by drug offenses.
Election-Year Blues
With Gov. Pritzker running for a third term this year, there’s little reason to believe that his clemency stats will increase to make up for last year’s shortfall. As we inch closer to the next presidential election in 2028, it’s likely Gov. Pritzker will continue to play it “safe” to preserve his chances of becoming the next Democratic candidate for president.
Final Thoughts
When I reflect on the (pardon) petitions I’ve filed since 2020 that remain pending, the common denominator among these men is that they’ve been crime-free for decades.
Yet despite the passage of time, their lives remain in limbo and, in a few cases, risk being deported.
In an era of instant gratification, waiting years for a decision can act as a painful reminder of the missteps one has made during their teens or early 20s. At times, such intruding thoughts can all but overshadow later accomplishments.
I will not speculate on the number of pending clemency petitions (as I’ve previously done). The Prisoner Review Board has not released an annual report since 2022. That means there is no public data on how many clemency petitions have been filed since 2023.
If you have a pending clemency petition, all you can do is take a deep breath, wait, and hope for the best.