Supreme Court of Illinois

A petition for a writ of mandamus to order the Director of Corrections and certain wardens to prevent the recording of certain commutation orders entered by the former governor or, alternatively, to expunge the commutation orders where entered, is denied where: 1) the governor's power to grant clemency is not diminished by statutory regulation of the process of applying for it; 2) the power to pardon includes the authority to preclude certain sentencing consequences; and 3) although it would be preferable that the clemency power be exercised on an individual basis, the governor acted within the broad powers granted to him by the state constitution.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/23/2004
• Published 02/12/2007

Judges

• Justice THOMAS delivered the opinion of the court:

Court

• Supreme Court of Illinois

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Springfield (Gary Feinerman, Solicitor General, Barry Gross, Chief Deputy Attorney General, and Mary Beth Burns and Lisa Anne Hoffman, Assistant Attorneys General, Chicago, of counsel), for petitioners., Renee Goldfarb, Alan J. Spellberg, Veronica Calderon Malavia and Annette Collins, Assistant State's Attorneys, Chicago, for amicus curiae Richard A. Devine, Cook County State's Attorney., Locke E. Bowman and Lawrence C. Marshall, Chicago, for amicus curiae MacArthur Justice Center., Kimball R. Anderson and Laura D. Cullison, of Winston and Strawn, Chicago, for amicus curiae Governor James R. Thompson.


• For Appellees:
  
• Frank Cicero, Jr., Michelle H. Browdy, Douglas G. Smith and Leonid Feller, of Kirkland & Ellis, L.L.P., and David A. Strauss, Special Assistant Attorneys General, Chicago, for respondents Donald N. Snyder, Jr., et al., Charles Schiedel, Deputy Defender, Springfield, and Steven Clark, Assistant Defender, Chicago, both of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, for respondents Robert Lee Evans, Jr., Roger Collins and William Bracy., Charles Hoffman, Assistant Defender, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Chicago, for respondents Ronald Alvine, Julius Kuntu and Martin Woolley., Kim Robert Fawcett, Assistant Defender, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Chicago, for respondent Eric Daniels., Steve Clark, Assistant Defender, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Chicago, for respondent Christopher Davis., Jeffrey M. Howard, Assistant Cook County Public Defender, Chicago, for respondent Tyrone Fuller., Frederick F. Cohn, Chicago, for respondent Delbert Heard., John L. Stainthorp, Chicago, for respondent Renaldo Hudson., Kathryn A. Saltmarsh, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Springfield, for respondent Maurice King., Joshua Sachs, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Chicago, for respondent Eric Lee., J. Samuel Tenenbaum, Matthew J. O'Hara and John L. Hayes, of Sachnoff & Weaver, Ltd., and Thomas F. Geraghty, Chicago, for respondent Samuel Morgan., Allen H. Andrews III, Assistant Defender, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Springfield, for respondent Richard Morris., Terri L. Mascherin, Jennifer B. Salvatore and Jason J. Green, of Jenner & Block, L.L.C., Chicago, for respondent Willie Thompkins, Jr., Charles Schiedel, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Springfield, for respondent Marlon Watford., James Gomric, of O'Gara & Gomric, P.C., Belleville, for respondent Bobby O. Williams., Locke E. Bowman and Lawrence C. Marshall, Chicago, and Kathryn A. Saltmarsh, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Springfield, for respondent Elton Williams., Gary Ravitz and Eric S. Palles, of Ravitz & Palles, P.C., Chicago, for respondent Patrick Wright.