SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) — Anthony Jones spent nearly 30 years in prison before he petitioned the Prisoner Review Board for clemency.
Jones was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1995. Eight months ago, he was granted clemency by the Prisoner Review Board.
“I’m not the same person,” Jones said. “And I’m sure that anyone would understand that you’re not the same person, you were when you were 20.”
The Prisoner Review Board hears cases like Jones’ every few months, but that process is stalled as the board members are at the center of a heated political debate.
Senate Republicans have hammered Governor Pritzker over the decisions made by his appointees. A handful of clemency votes in particular for Joseph Hurst, Johnny Veal and James Taylor are drawing most of the attention from Pritzker’s political opponents. All three men were convicted of killing police officers.
“His appointees to this board in some cases are extreme, and he needs to reevaluate his administration’s process on public safety.
Pritzker blamed Republicans for politicizing the issue, but he declined to say whether he stands by the boards controversial choices.
“To have Republicans attack them, and their character and their biographies to have Republicans essentially trying to tear apart this agency of government,” Pritzker said Tuesday. “I mean, this is what the GQ P has been all about — tearing government apart.”
The attacks from Republicans worked. Two of Pritzker’s appointees appeared in front of the Senate for confirmation votes, and both were denied. Another member of the board resigned. With so many vacancies, the Prisoner Review Board announced it will postpone it’s quarterly clemency hearings indefinitely.
Several Senate Democrats took issue with the appointees votes on the cases involving the men convicted of killing police officers. Senator Meg Loughran Cappel (D-Plainfield) said their should be crimes — like the murder of a law enforcement officer — that are not eligible for clemency in any form.
“I think that that’s why we have our judicial system set up to give those sentences,” Loughran Cappel said. “And I think that, you know, once that sentence is served, that is their second chance.”
Thirteen Senate Democrats abstained from the vote for Pritzker appointee Eleanor Wilson Monday. Senator Steve Stadelman (D-Rockford) was one of those who avoided the vote.
“I think we need to find a new way to appoint members and deal with this issue,” Stadelman said. “Because over the past few years, again, appointments have been politicized.”
Any appointee the governor puts forward now will be willingly walking into a battlefield for the upcoming election. Senate Republican Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) said the board is better off not taking votes at all instead of the ones that Pritzker’s appointees were making.
“If there’s a stall in the process of the Prisoner Review Board, that means less violent people walking our streets, which is a win,” Rose said.
Jones takes issue with the idea that those released by the Prisoner Review Board are the same as they were when they committed their crimes.
Jones spent the last eight months working with the Illinois Prison Project, which helps inmates through the clemency process. He said clemency was the only hope of a second chance while he was in prison, and now he is worried that other inmates petitioning for clemency won’t have their cases heard.
“There’s no functioning board,” Jones said. “No matter how many people put their clemency petitions up, we know that it won’t even be heard at what a full board. So you, basically you just filed it for nothing.”
