I recently received this email from a potential client:

I noticed that there were two Class 4 felonies on my record. What exactly is a Class 4 felony? I wasn’t even aware that they were on my record because I thought they were reduced to misdemeanors but I guess I was wrong since they showed up. Is this something that can only be accessed my certain angencies or individuals or is this public information?

My response:

You were originally charged with felonies but they were reduced to misdemeanors and you were sentenced to misdemeanor probation. Just because the felonies were reduced, that does not mean the original felony charges disappear.

I often give this analogy: you go to the hospital for a broken ankle. They x-ray your ankle and see that there isn’t a break, that you just sprained it. Your doctor tells you to wrap it and ice it for a few days. Just because the diagnosis isn’t a break, that doesn’t mean the hospital throws away your x-ray and your original file that says you were there for a broken bone.

FYI, when you are able to seal the misdemeanor conviction, the original felony charges WILL also be sealed.

Please email Tamara Holder holderlaw@gmail.com or visit xpunged.com and she will respond to your inquiry. Also, be sure to follow Tamara on Twitter: @tamaraholder

I just received this email from a client who retained us in late-2011 to a seal a record in Cook County’s 6th District, located in Markham, Illinois.

We filed the petition to seal in January of 2012. The order was entered soon after, in March of 2012.

The “order” is simply a piece of paper signed by the judge that goes to the agencies that have your records and tells those agencies to expunge or seal your records. The record is not expunged or sealed when the judge enters the order. Instead, there is administrative process (that is outside of our control) and the agencies can take many months to clear your record from their system. There are two letters that come to us: 1) from the Illinois State Police, and 2) from the police department that arrested you.

In this case, the Illinois State Police sent its letter of compliance in late-June of 2012. But the arresting police department did not send its letter of compliance until December of 2012 – that’s nine months after the judge signed the order to seal. 

My client was in the process of moving to Florida and was worried about passing background checks. The arrest was in 2004 and suddenly, my client needed the record sealed “yesterday!”

Point being, do not wait to expunge or seal a record.

Unfortunately, the common practice of governors and presidents is to avoid granting pardons/clemency (the term is often used interchangeably) and commutation of sentence (aka early release from prison), of convicted Americans who are seeking forgiveness or who maintain their innocence. Their reason for avoiding the decision is not because they are not convinced by the person, but they fear political backlash. Politicians are afraid to forgive a person because their opponents may use it against them.

Presidents’ and governors’ fear of granting many strong candidates a pardon is unreasonable and adversely affects not only the person but society as a whole. Leon Neyfakh of The Boston Globe recently wrote specifically about presidents’ fear of using their exclusive power to forgive. When presidents do use their power to pardon, they usually do it for their friends in high places: President Ford pardoned Nixon, President Clinton pardoned his step-brother, and President Bush pardoned Scooter Libby. President Obama has been in office of over 4 years has only granted 39 pardons, 17 of which came last month. Pathetic.

What Mr. Neyfakh fails to mention is an even bigger epidemic: governors are not using their exclusive power to grant pardons for state crimes.

Illinois Governor Quinn has thousands of pardons sitting on his desk. He has the sole power to decide whether to forgive many non-violent drug addicts who, in the past 20 years, have lived a life of devotion to their family, their job and their community. These are regular people, your neighbors, who did something stupid as a young person but are living with a Scarlet Letter “F” for felon forever. Every day, I tell one of my pardon clients, “Sorry, there is nothing we can do but continue to wait for Quinn to make a decision.” If you follow Professor P.S. Ruckman on his blog – pardonpower.com – you will see that he tracks the granting of pardons because it’s so rare.

I understand the position of some who say, “If you committed a crime, it is your fault, and you have to be a felon forever.” I get it. BUT, the United States Constitution grants the President the power to pardon. And each state grants its governor the sole power to pardon. If the governor does not want to pardon anyone, I respect (although disagree) with the decision.

The problem, however, is not IF the person should or should not be pardoned. The problem is that our governors and presidents are not making the decision at all. This is a failure of responsibility and the American people must demand that this power must not be ignored.

* Tamara Holder is an Illinois attorney. She petitions governors in all states for clemency and pardon for her clients.

Gov. Quinn is known for granting clemency (commonly known as a pardon) around the holidays. If you look at his pattern, he generally grants pardons around the most-celebrated holidays, especially Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

Unfortunately, the Chicago Tribune is too lazy to study the Governor’s pattern; instead, its theory is . “Quinn tends to act on a slew of clemency requests right before busy holiday weekends, when there typically is less media scrutiny.”

Governor Quinn’s clemency and pardon decisions have little to do with politics and any fear of publicity; instead, his decisions are based on a belief that each petitioner has proved his or her case for a second chance. Additionally, he likes to give the extraordinary remedy at a time when people are already celebrating with their families.

There is still a backlog of petitions due to Governor Blagojevich’s departure from office but Governor Quinn is definitely making moves.Professor P.S. Ruckman’s blog www.pardonpower.com tracks governors’ pardons. In March of 2012, he stated “Quinn had acted on 1,735 petitions, denying 62 percent. The backlog, however, is at 2,553.”

A 38% grant-rate is actually very high, considering many petitioners had a little “chance” to begin with. A pardon is not just for someone who is still in prison or for someone who was convicted of a terrible crime. A pardon is also required for the person with almost any felony (there is a rare exception to this rule) for that they received probation and never went to prison.

If you have a good reason to argue you are a good candidate for a pardon, then I recommend you petition the governor and not focus on your “chances.”
<em>
Your chances are only as good as the quality of your request.</em>

Just because a website looks good or similar to ours, we advise you to do the following things:

1) Your criminal record is a serious matter. Make sure you only hire an attorney to file the papers with the court.

2) Ask your attorney questions about his or her experience. How many petitions for pardon/clemency, expungement/sealing has the attorney filed?

3) Ask you attorney how long he or she has been practicing law.

4) Compare attorneys…don’t be mislead…

Prior to 2012, people who were sentenced to supervision for misdemeanor retail theft had to wait 5 years after the successful termination of supervision to file to expunge their record.

Now, however, people no longer have to wait 5 years to expunge. Instead, it’s just 2 years after successful termination of supervision.

Keep in mind, if you have more than a retail theft arrest on your record, you may not be eligible to expunge. All cases – in every Illinois county and any other state outside of Illinois – must be evaluated to determine if one is eligible to expunge or seal.

We have focused our practice on expungement/sealing/pardons for almost 7 years. We follow the laws closely and we understand how to evaluate each person’s record.

Please call us at any time if you have questions: The Law Firm of Tamara N. Holder, LLC – 312-332-4629 – Chicago, Illinois

Most people are under the mistaken impression that their juvenile court proceedings won’t hold them back. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case in Illinois. While there are several mechanisms in place to help juvenile offenders, there are still pitfalls in the law forcing juveniles into harsh circumstances.

In Illinois, you become an adult at age 17. The law states that “Except…(exceptions)…, no minor who was under 17 years of age at the time of the alleged offense may be prosecuted under the criminal laws of this State.” [705 405/5-120] That is not to say that juveniles may exist outside the law. There are still juvenile proceedings for alleged offenders, but rather than being convicted they are found “delinquent.” Delinquent juveniles may be sentenced by judges for their offenses, but delinquency does not qualify as a conviction and may be expunged eventually. Sounds good, right?

Well, the problem comes with those listed exceptions. Most of the exceptions are for severe cases. For example, a 16 year old accused of first degree murder may be prosecuted for that offense like an adult. However, there is one exception that allows for any minor alleged to have violated a municipal or county ordinance to be prosecuted and punished under Illinois statutes. The idea behind this exception is likely to make sure that juveniles still have to pay fines for petty offenses, like parking tickets.

Unfortunately, this broad exception allows for juveniles to be convicted of any ordinance violation, including the criminal convictions the law is designed to protect juveniles from. An arrestable ordinance violation counts as a conviction under Illinois expungement law. There is no exception for juvenile offenders. This means that a person may be prevented from expunging their criminal record because of a small offense they committed as a juvenile.

This is precisely what happened to a client of ours. At twelve years old, he was caught by the police with a small about of cannabis. If he had been charged under the Illinois criminal statute, he would have likely been found delinquent and could expunge the case when he turned 21. Instead, he was prosecuted under the local ordinance for possession, and was therefore convicted. His punishment was simply to pay a fine, so the whole process was likely done with good intentions to protect the kid. But contrary to those intentions, he now has a conviction on his record and may no longer expunge.

He is still eligible to seal, which would be fine for most people. Except in this circumstance it does not, because the client wants to become a police officer and the police are one of the few allowed to see sealed records. Many police departments have automatic denials for any potential officer with a drug conviction. So, because of a small mistake that the client made when he was twelve, he is not able to become a police officer.

The Aldermen’s motive is not necessarily to decriminalize the possession of pot; instead, it is to allow the City to make money without requiring police and court time to prosecute the crime. Solis told the AP, “In these trying times of the economy, we could really use the revenue generated by fines versus arrests…and each (arrest) means police officers are spending an inordinate amount of time outside the neighborhoods, inside the district offices doing paperwork.”

Alderman Joe Moreno (1st)  incorrectly stated in his piece on The Huffington Post, “Anyone caught with 10 grams or less will be issued a $200 fine, instead of being arrested, and given a record for life, as is currently the case.”

Clearly, the Aldermen did not review the Illinois Criminal Identification Act, which states that felonies, misdemeanors and local ordinance violations quality for expunging and/or sealing. The Act also states that 1) a fine = a “conviction” and 2) if you have a conviction on your record, you cannot expunge your record, you can only seal it. A conviction also prevents one from expunging any other part of their record. So if a person fined for an ordinance marijuana charge has something else on his record, he now cannot expunge the other cases.

So are the Aldermen looking to raise revenue for the City or are they looking to protect citizens who are users of small amounts of marijuana? Thus far, this ordinance looks like it’s an idea cloaked in “what’s good for the people” but really it’s only about what’s “good for the city.”

I can only assume that Blago hopes to have a Miracle on 34th Street moment in which thousands of letters are dumped onto the judge’s bench. The idea is that the judge would then show leniency in sentencing Blago for his several convictions.

As I read this, I couldn’t help but appreciate the irony of the situation. When a pardon petitioner seeks executive clemency, he will almost always supplement his petition with character letters in support of the petitioner. Now, Blagojevich is attempting to do something very similar by obtaining character letters of support for his sentencing.

When Blagojevich was Illinois Governor, he let thousands of pardon petitions sit pending with no decision. This is the cowardly way to deal with pardon petitions. Rather than actually taking a stand and risking political backlash one way or the other, Blago simply kept his mouth shut (the first time I’m sure). Current Governor Quinn is still working through the Blagojevich backlog that accumulated from as far back as 2003.

Ask any pardon petitioner and they will tell you that the wait is the hardest part of the process. Most would rather receive a denial than no decision at all. At the very least, a denial would allow the petitioner to re-file. But “pending” just means more sleepless nights of not knowing.

When thousands of convicted felons reached out for help from then Governor Blagojevich, he simply turned the other way. But now that Blago himself is in that same helpless position of being a convicted felon, he hopes to receive the help that he never gave when he was in a position to do so.

Honestly, I do feel for the guy. I fear he may get an excessive sentence simply because there was such a spotlight on this entire case, and people want their pound of flesh. But I still can’t help but appreciate the ways in which fate can toy with people.