Gov. Murphy order launches expansive clemency program

Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order Wednesday intended to speed clemency applications to his desk in hopes of extending pardons to thousands of New Jerseyans in and out of the state’s jails and prisons.

Murphy’s order creates a board that will review clemency applications and make non-binding recommendations about which requests should be granted in an effort to expand grants of clemency beyond friends and allies of the governor, as has often been the practice in New Jersey and elsewhere.

“Historically speaking here in New Jersey, receiving a pardon or having your sentence commuted was not a matter of either fairness or objectivity,” Murphy said at Saint James A.M.E. Church in Newark. “It was a matter of who you knew or how well connected you were to those in power. With the executive order I’m signing today, we are changing that.”

Rapper Meek Mill — real name Robert Rihmeek Williams— spoke at Wednesday’s announcement in support of the initiative. He became a champion for criminal justice reform because of a 2007 arrest on gun and drug charges in Philadelphia that prosecutors later conceded may have been improper. The state’s Superior Court in 2019 vacated the rapper’s conviction, citing credibility problems with the arresting officer.

“Everything you’re talking about — clemency, second chances, giving people a fair shot — I grew up on that side of life, and I never thought I would be in rooms like this,” the rapper said Wednesday. “You guys give me the courage and the energy to use my platform to keep pushing forward to better our communities.”

Murphy’s order comes two days after Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, signed an order pardoning 17,000 misdemeanor cannabis-related convictions (cannabis use is legal in that state for those over 21).

Murphy’s order, which comes after lobbying by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, directs the board to expedite applications if they pass a two-pronged test based on time and the offense for which they seek a pardon. The governor says he expects the first batch of clemencies to come in roughly six months.

Clemency seekers who are no longer incarcerated would be eligible for expedited review if 10 years had passed since the end of their sentence, including parole, probation, and court diversionary programs. That time bar falls to five years for applicants who are 60 or older or who were no older than 25 at the time of their offense.

They could meet the offense test if the crime for which they seek a pardon was not subject to the No Early Release Act or is no longer illegal.

“Corrections is based upon providing the opportunity for second chances, and our criminal and justice systems must provide meaningful opportunities for rehabilitation and redemption,” said Corrections Commissioner Victoria Kuhn.

The order bars clemency for offenses involving public corruption. Those with pending charges or who have been convicted outside of New Jersey for crimes that would prevent expedited review are likewise ineligible.

Murphy’s order creates a separate process for those who are currently incarcerated. Such individuals would be eligible for expedited review if they were a victim of sex trafficking or domestic violence, they were handed an excessive sentence, or they were convicted of a crime that is no longer illegal or has had its penalties reduced.

Regardless of a person’s carceral status, they are eligible for expedited review if the conviction review unit within the Office of the Attorney General refers the application to the new board for that purpose.

The Department of Corrections will work to solicit clemency applications from those still jailed, Murphy said, while those who have completed their sentences must apply online.

“Sometime in the future, I suspect after I’ve hung my cleats up, there will be an opportunity for somebody to press a button and automatically know who’s eligible or is considering eligibility, but today we don’t have it,” Murphy said. “So, the responsibility’s going to be out there on the individual to come to us.”

The six-member board must include the New Jersey attorney general and five public members, among whom there must be a retired judge, an experienced defense attorney, an expert on clemency, and a victim advocate.

Murphy has selected Justin Dews, a former senior counsel to the governor, as the board’s chair. The panel’s members will serve at the governor’s pleasure and receive no compensation.

“Clemency, whether it be a pardon or a commutation, is transformational,” Dews said Wednesday. “A pardon removes barriers that the law erects. Commutations shortens sentences. What the law says you cannot do, a pardon restores, and what the law says you must face, a pardon wipes away.”

Murphy has not issued any pardons since taking office in early 2018, and executive clemencies are a relative rarity in New Jersey.

Since Christine Todd Whitman became governor in 1994, the state’s executives have issued just 105 pardons and commutations, with most coming at the end of a governor’s lame-duck term.

Chris Christie, who issued more pardons than any governor since at least 1994, issued 15 clemencies in his first seven years in office, pardoned 38 in his last year, and commuted the sentences of three others.

Murphy on Wednesday declined to rule out issuing pardons or clemencies to individuals the board did not recommend should receive them.