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Panel hears bill to create a state pardons commission; advocates say process is needed to address racial disparities
Summary
Representative Morales introduced House Bill 5379 to create a nine-member advisory commission to evaluate pardons and recommend nominees to the governor. Supporters including the ACLU and civil-rights leaders urged the committee to adopt the bill, citing decades without pardons for living people and racial disparities in incarceration rates.
Representative Michelle Morales introduced House Bill 5379 to create a state commission on pardons that would develop application and hearing procedures and recommend individuals for gubernatorial pardon under Article IX, Section 13 of the Rhode Island Constitution.
Morales said Rhode Island has not issued a pardon for a living person in decades and called for an advisory body that would screen applications, develop procedures and forward recommended nominees to the governor, who would still…
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