Quinn hands out pardons
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Pat Quinn used Good Friday to grant clemency to 52 convicted offenders and deny the pleas of 136 more.
Quinn either pardoned or expunged the criminal records of 26 Cook County offenders, four people convicted in DuPage County, two people in Lake County and one each from Kane and Will counties. None of the cases were from McHenry County.
Quinn did not offer reasons for his decisions, but simply released a list.
Those granted clemency had offenses ranging from drug charges to armed robbery. Some were misdemeanors, but one, for manufacture and delivery of cocaine, was a Class X felony. Their convictions date back as far as the 1960s.
Since taking office, Quinn has acted on petitions for clemency regularly after inheriting 2,500 pleas that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich never touched.
“We're just trying to get through,” said Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson.
Quinn has waded through more than 1,900 now, granting clemency to 718 people, and denying it to more than 1,200 others, according to his office.
Granting pardons to criminals can be a politically controversial undertaking, but Quinn has so far managed to largely stay away from pardons in high-profile cases.
Prosecutors in Cook County and the collar counties either did not comment or could not be reached Friday afternoon about cases in their jurisdictions.