Through Commutation of Sentence for Imprisoned Petitioners
Introduction:
Wisconsin's Legacy of
Gubernatorial Clemency,
Through Commutation of Sentence
for Imprisoned Petitioners
Prepared by Harlan Richards
This report describes
the history and tradition of granting clemency to incarcerated petitioners in
Wisconsin and provides commutation of sentence data from five previous
governors.
Since Wisconsin's
inception in 1848, governors have liberally granted clemency to imprisoned
petitioners. When the death penalty was replaced with life in prison in
Wisconsin over 150 years ago, the only way convicted murderers could be
released from prison was by pardoning them. Governors routinely pardoned lifers
after serving an average of five years.1 The creation of a parole
system in Wisconsin did not stop governors from granting commutation of
sentences for prisoners. Before the Mass Incarceration Movement hijacked
Wisconsin's criminal justice system in 1987, governors were still routinely
granting commutation of sentences to imprisoned citizens.
Attached to this
report is a list of prisoners who were granted commutation of sentence while
still imprisoned from 1969 to 19862. Governors Warren Knowles,
Patrick Lucey, Martin Schrieber, Lee Dreyfus and Tony Earl all commuted the
sentences of numerous prisoners. The reason for granting the bulk of these
commutations was to permit a prisoner to become eligible for parole (and then
released on parole) at an earlier date than allowed by statute3.
Note 1: This
data is available in the biannual reports of Waupun State Prison from the
1800s. These reports are held in the State Historical Society archives (askarchives@wisconsinhistory.org).
Note 2: Governor
Tommy Thompson took office in 1987 espousing a "get tough on crime"
agenda which was the birth of the Mass Incarceration Movement in Wisconsin.
Note 3: Previously,
prisoners were eligible for release on parole after serving one year - except
for' persons convicted of 1st or 2nd degree murder. 1st degree murder required
serving 11 years, 3 months while 2nd degree murder required serving 5 years
before reaching parole eligibility.
When Governor
Thompson took office in 1987, one of his first acts was to bar prisoners from
petitioning for clemency. That restriction has become entrenched in
gubernatorial clemency guidelines. The only way a prisoner can now seek a
commutation of sentence is to file a form requesting permission to file for
clemency. To the best of this author's knowledge, no prisoner has succeeded in
establishing the extraordinary circumstances necessary to overcome this
restriction. Each governor since 1987 has supported the Mass Incarceration
Movement and refrained from granting any prisoner a commutation of sentence.
Governor Scott Walker took it one step further and refused to accept a petition
for clemency from anyone.
The adherence to the doctrines of the Mass
Incarceration Movement by Wisconsin governors has led to historical levels of
imprisonment and monitoring of citizens through probation, parole and extended
supervision.
Wisconsin Corrections Data -
Approximate Totals
Wisconsin Blue Book 2011-12
Year 1970 1980 1990 2000
Imprisoned 2900
3200 6200 19000
On Supervision 8900
20000 30000 64000
In 1990, Governor
Thompson commissioned a "Ten Year Plan" for the Department of Corrections
which projected that the Wisconsin prison population would soar to 20,000. It
became a self—fulfilling prophecy accomplished by imprisoning more citizens for
longer periods based on eliminating release on parole and enacting harsher
sentencing laws.
The data on
persons serving life sentences in Wisconsin demonstrates the effect the Mass
Incarceration Movement had on how much time they served. Four graphs are attached
to this report: Number of Lifers With 20+ Consecutive Years Incarcerated (as of
May 2009), Time Served by Persons with Life Sentences Who Are Still
Incarcerated In Wisconsin (May 2017, showing number of lifers with 30 or 40
consecutive-years served), Time Served to Release for Persons Serving Life
Sentences in Wisconsin (May 2017) and Average Time Served/Number of Persons
Released for Persons Serving Life Sentences in Wisconsin (May 2017). This data
begins at 1980 or 81 and goes up through the date of preparation.
In 1980, only
two lifers had served more than 20 years in prison and no lifer had served 30
years in prison. By 2009, there were 255 lifers who had served over 20 years in
prison. In 1990, there was only one lifer who had served more than 30 years in
prison; by 2017, there were 136. In 2000, there was only one lifer who had
served over 40 years in prison; by 2017, there were 23.
The refusal to
grant commutation of sentence to incarcerated lifers contributed to this
decades—long warehousing which is Still going on. Data on how much time lifers
served to release on parole in the early 1980s is scarce because so few lifers
reached parole eligibility without being granted commutation of sentence before
that. In 1981 and 1982, two lifers were released in each year, all of them
having served less than 4 years. In 2002, not one lifer was released on parole
in spite of hundreds of lifers being eligible. By May 2017, the average time
served to release on parole was almost 30 years. Many lifers are still languishing
in prison with more than 30 years served.
Before the Mass
Incarceration Movement, Wisconsin governors understood that merely because a
citizen committed a crime,it did not make him or her irredeemable or in need of
endless incarceration to "protect the public" (persons convicted of
murder historically have the lowest recidivism rates -in the single digits -
yet are the ones who suffer most from the Mass Incarceration Movement).
The attached
list of prisoners granted commutation of sentence shows that frequently the
sole basis for granting commutation was the conduct of the petitioner after
coming to prison. However, current parole and security classification policies
give little or: no weight to institution conduct or achievements for persons
serving long sentences.
Governor Tony
Evers is in a position to put an end to the Mass Incarceration Movement in
Wisconsin by restoring the right to petition for clemency to incarcerated
citizens. Billions of dollars have been wasted on unnecessary warehousing of prisoners
since Governor Th ompson brought the Mass Incarceration Movement to Wisconsin.
Governor Evers
is urged to restore the policy of granting commutation of sentence to
imprisoned citizens.
Full Report:
This report has three sections
Introduction by Harlan Richards ( available through this link and pasted above)
Lists of prisoners clemency in the years 1976 through 1986, their convictions, conduct in prison and relief granted
4 Charts showing WI treatment over the years of Prisoners given life sentences.
All three sections of clemency report
available here:
Original reports were obtained from the Legislative reference Bureau and will soon be posted here also
four blogs of Old law
prisoners: all are linked on each of
these main blogs:
or you can go to
individual blogs:
1)https://secondchancewi.blogspot.com/2018/12/long-overdue-for-parole.html
- this is a blog of those probably easiest politically to release: the elderly
and sick, those to be deported upon release. those with sentences too long
2)http://secondchanceforjuvenileoffenders.blogspot.com/_people
waived into adult prisons as Juveniles- good candidates for clemency
newest Blog : this has both TIS and O LD prisoners. ALL
filled out the 13 questions on the form “request for Serious Parole
Consideration “
4)https://parolecases.blogspot.com/:
our oldest parole blog- with lots of document . Has been updated as far as age
and prison.
