OLYMPIA, WA – Washington’s clemency and pardons board will be expanded, and members will begin to receive pay under a state law approved earlier this year.
Enlarging the board is intended to help it hear more cases. In recent years, the number of people seeking and getting hearings has increased, but because the board consists of only five volunteer members and only meets four times a year, it limits the number of cases it can review.
“Because of that, we’ve seen people waiting multiple years now to get a hearing,” said Jennie Pasquarella, legal director at the Seattle Clemency Project.
The process used to only take a couple of months, Pasquarella said.
Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, who sponsored House Bill 1131, said the bill is “part of our effort to create more mechanisms for mid-sentence review and possible release or commutation.”
Members of the clemency and pardons board are appointed by the governor. They review applications and hold hearings on cases. But it is the governor who ultimately decides who is granted clemency or a pardon.
Clemency can involve reducing a sentence for a criminal conviction, also known as a commutation. A pardon absolves a person of guilt for a crime and can restore certain rights and privileges lost due to the conviction.
The new law will expand the board to ten members. It also requires board members to represent different backgrounds, including an incarcerated individual, a representative of a faith-based organization, a federally recognized tribe member, and a member from a crime victim organization.
Board members will also be allowed to receive pay of up to $100 a day.
“We want people who have had different perspectives in the system to offer sort of a more balanced view,” Goodman said.
The bill also contained a controversial provision to allow the board to consider expediting a petition if the person has a pending deportation order or deportation proceeding. Originally, this provision was a separate bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Hasegawa, D-Tukwila.
When Hasegawa’s bill came to the House Community Safety Committee, which Goodman chairs, he said he didn’t move it forward because he didn’t know whether the bill would have the votes to pass. Hasegawa then approached him and asked him to include it in his bill. Goodman told him he would do so if Hasegawa could gain full approval from the Senate.
Goodman emphasized that there is no requirement in the law for the board to expedite cases for immigrants facing deportation, only to consider doing so.
Gov. Bob Ferguson issued a partial veto of the bill, removing a section that would not allow it to go into effect if funding wasn’t provided. The Legislature previously allocated $416,000 for the expansion in the current budget, but no funding for a related staff position at the governor’s office.
“I intend to seek the necessary funding to support the work contemplated by this legislation in the next budget,” Ferguson wrote in his veto letter.
The law allows the governor to start the process of appointing new board members in late July.
This story first appeared on Washington State Standard.
