For the second straight year, Governor Brown’s pre-Christmas pardons includes a Nevada County case. In January of 1985, Timothy Crumley was sentenced for a felony marijuana-selling conviction and completed the sentence in November of 1988. The governor’s deputy press secretary, Gareth Lacy, says Brown granted 112 pardons this year…

click to listen to Gareth Lacy

The wording in many of the court recommendations includes the statement that since release the person has, quote, “lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law-abiding citizen”. Lacy says the vast majority of cases are non-violent, and are usually drug-related. He says a pardon restores some citizenship rights that were forfeited as a result of a conviction…

click to listen to Gareth Lacy

Lacy says a gubernatorial pardon does not erase a conviction, but state and federal law enforcement agencies are informed and the pardon becomes a public record, information that can also be included in a job application. Governor Brown, the state’s longest-serving governor, has now issued 1,258 pardons. That’s far more than his three immediate predecessors. Arnold Schwarzenegger granted only 15, Gray Davis granted none, and Pete Wilson approved only 13.