What if Illinois had a Gov. Barbour?

If you’re like most Americans, you’re probably scratching your head over the bizarre pardon spree Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour appears to have gone on during the final day of his political career.

Sitting where we do in Chicago’s suburbs, we recognize we’re too far away from Mississippi to understand everything that took place there or inside Barbour’s head, but at first blush, it appears to be a case of a governor pardoning 200 felons — including many murderers — almost whimsically.

In doing so, he may have violated a requirement Mississippi has for a 30-day public notice in advance of the pardons, and if that’s the case, as the state’s attorney general maintains, some of the pardons may be rescinded.

If the same thing were to happen in Illinois — and it’s more than possible that someday it could — the state would have no similar remedy, simply because the state has no similar restriction.

In fact, Illinois has virtually no restrictions. Through the authority of the state constitution, an Illinois governor can pardon or grant clemency to whatever state felon he or she wants, for whatever reason he or she wants, at whatever time he or she wants.

Seriously, if Gov. Rod Blagojevich had only broken state laws and not federal laws, he likely could have pardoned himself prior to leaving office for any criminal charge that may subsequently have been leveled against him. That’s how broad the governor’s authority is in Illinois.

As we have indicated in this space before, we are not big fans of executive pardons.

Nationally, President Bill Clinton abused the power on his last day in office when he granted scores of pardons, many to politically connected allies. President George W. Bush commuted the sentence of his vice president’s chief of staff.

In Illinois, Gov. George Ryan exercised the broadest reach of clemency powers by using it essentially to reinvent law. He indiscriminately commuted the sentences of 156 death row inmates on the grounds that the state could not be trusted to impose executions fairly. He made little if any attempt to review the individual cases.

In challenging the governor’s power in this regard, we are not questioning the manner in which the current governor, Pat Quinn, has exercised his authority. By all indications, Quinn has reviewed clemency petitions methodically and with seriousness of purpose.

But Mississippi-style abuses are simply waiting to happen in Illinois unless restrictions are placed on what is now a unilateral power of the governor. Public hearings, for example, ought to be held on all clemency cases. It would make sense also that all cases be considered by an independent clemency review board that would make recommendations to the governor.

We also suggest a rule that would limit pardons and clemencies to emergency cases only in the 90 days prior to a governor leaving office.

And oh yes, that 30-day public notice requirement is as good an idea for Illinois as it has turned out to be for Mississippi.