Jerry Brown has granted over 1,000 pardons or commutations during his most recent eight years as governor. [December 23 update: Bob Egelko in today’s San Francisco Chronicle — “Gov. Jerry Brown sets record for pardons, commutations in California.”] He often announces clemency decisions at holiday time. (E.g., here and here.) However, before he can pardon or commute the sentence of anyone who has twice been convicted of a felony, he is constitutionally required to get the consent of a majority of the Supreme Court.
Yesterday, the court cleared the way for three twice-convicted felons to be included in Governor Brown’s expected Christmastime clemency grants:
- Elizabeth Vasquez: pardon for drug possession convictions.
- Tammy Linn: pardon for convictions of possession of a controlled substance for sale and of theft by forged or invalid access card, false checks, records, certificates, etc., possession of a blank check with intent to defraud and getting credit using another’s identification.
- Marlon O’Keith: pardon for convictions of burglary and of vehicle theft and robbery.
The three recommendations still leave the court with considerable unfinished clemency business and little time to get it done. By our count, there are 17 pending recommendation requests, but just one scheduled conference and 18 days before Governor Brown’s term ends.
