Posted by Monique Garcia and Ray Long at 6:35 p.m.
Gov. Pat Quinn made Good Friday a little bit better for 147 people, granting pardons for a variety of crimes.
None of the people who received clemency was behind bars for the crimes in which they were pardoned.
Most of the crimes dated from the 1980s and 1990s, and most of the original sentences were for probation.
The cases ranged from retail theft and stealing a car to theft of state services and prostitution.
The governor delivered the news late Friday afternoon as he continued to whittle the huge backlog of clemency petitions filed under his predecessor, impeached and indicted ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The former governor rarely took action on clemencies during his six years in office and the stack of requests grew to nearly 2,500.
Quinn’s pardons came as he acted on 407 clemency petitions dating from 2003 through 2007. He denied 258 petitions. He authorized two people who had already received pardons to seek expungement.
Quinn has acted on 769 clemencies since taking office in late January 2009. He has granted 321 pardons, authorized eight people with pardons to seek expungement of their convictions and denied 440 petitions, according to a statement the office released Friday.
One of the problems with Blagojevich’s lack of action is that petitioners were put into a holding pattern that prevented them from moving on with their lives. Petitioners have complained that they wanted to see if they could get relief as they applied for a variety of jobs. A person must wait to be denied before he can apply again for a pardon, leaving many hopeful Illinoisans frustrated.