I received the following letter today from the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons. Herein are the highlights"
"This letter is to inform you that your clemency application has been filed by the Board of Pardons.
Please be advised that agents from the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole conduct investigations for the Board of Pardons. ...you will be contacted by a Parole Agent to arrange a meeting in your home...
As soon as all pertinent information has been compiled, the application will then be reviewed by each Board member, and a public vote will be taken to determine if you will be granted a public hearing. You will be notified of the results of the Board's review.
Please be advised that the clemency process is very lengthy and complex. It currently takes approximately three (3) years to complete..."
And so the wheels of a government agency slowly begin to grind. It took nearly two months to get to this point, but the fact that the application has been filed is good. At least I got the initial paperwork right. I wonder how many applications don't make muster in this first step? Anyway, I will wait for the next step and so on and so on, looking forward to each one to hopefully come to positive resolution.
The fact is the main purpose for this was employment issues with background checks and even places where I am currently prohibited from working for having a felony conviction. By the time the process is complete and a Pardon is granted I will be 68-years-old. I am not sure how to express my view regarding the initial goal being relevant at that point, but I can tell you that I want this Pardon nonetheless.
I didn't think it would be a three (3) year process and was thinking more like one year. Government agencies I guess don't move at breakneck speed. With my application I provided many attachments to be reviewed and considered. I suspect that most if not all of these will be checked to verify authenticity and gather more information. I welcome that because I have nothing to hide.
Taking it all into consideration, I reiterate that I really want this Pardon. I want the state of Pennsylvania to review my application, look at who I am as a person right now today. Isn't that what this is about? I also want the Board to look at my past lifestyle and recognize that it is not, and never has been, a lifestyle of criminal thinking and intent.
This of course would involve having them believe that the likely hood of my ever acting out again is basically non-existent. I word it that way because is there ever really a "never" for anything in life. I can believe in myself that the actions I took will not happen again but the Board has to evaluate it from the perspective that if it happened once it could happen again. I get that.
I will do the interviews, answer the questions, jump through the hoops, etc. and in three years I want the governor of the state of Pennsylvania to grant this Pardon to me which in effect says I recognize that you are a good person. I am doing and will continue to do all the right things to earn this. This may be melodramatic, but in the end I want my children and grandchildren to be proud of a father and grandfather who does not have the label of ex-offender attached to him in the fine print and in the eyes of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Keep you posted, but it will probably be a while.
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