Politics
Gov. Murphy Grants First Pardons, Freeing 3 Prisoners
The offenders were recommended by an advisory panel that Philip D. Murphy, New Jersey’s Democratic governor, set up in June.
Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey on Monday announced the first pardons of his two-term administration.
His decision commutes the prison sentences of three female offenders, granting them freedom, and pardons 33 other people, wiping clean their criminal record. The announcement comes six months after Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, set up an advisory panel to weigh applicants’ claims of either hardship or rehabilitation.
Mr. Murphy, who took office in 2018, has spoken regularly about inequities within the state’s criminal justice system. But unlike most of his predecessors, he did not use his office to offer pardons until now.
However, his administration granted early release to thousands of prisoners during the Covid-19 pandemic, a step that helped to reduce the spread of the virus and drastically reduced the state’s prison population.
“This is about the most momentous day I’ve had as governor,” Mr. Murphy said as he announced the pardons.
“As we approach the final year of our administration, we will continue embracing a fair, impartial and balanced approach for granting legal relief to New Jerseyans who have earned a second chance,” he added in a statement.
In June, he set up the new panel to review clemency applications on an expedited basis. Mr. Murphy said his goal was to prioritize people convicted of some nonviolent crimes and offenders who had been victims of domestic or sexual violence or sex trafficking and were imprisoned after committing a crime against the perpetrator.
“The fundamental goal underlying this initiative is to provide relief from inequities that have existed and been perpetuated in the criminal legal system,” his office said in a statement at the time.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has been a leading proponent of granting clemency by categories of crime, rather than individual offenders, as a way to streamline the process and address systemic injustice.
Mr. Murphy’s decision to grant pardons as he enters his final year in office is considered modest compared with actions taken by other Democratic governors.
Kate Brown, Oregon’s former governor, in 2022 granted more than 40,000 pardons to people convicted of possessing a small amount of marijuana before 2016, when marijuana was legalized in Oregon. The governors of Massachusetts and Maryland have taken similarly sweeping steps to pardon people convicted of low-level charges related to marijuana use or possession.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
