California Gov. Jerry Brown issues Christmas pardons for dozens of convicted felons
A Santa Clarita real estate agent, an El Cajon lawyer, and a prison chaplain from Norwalk all had their criminal histories excused through pardons by Gov. Jerry Brown as part of an annual tradition of Christmastime clemency.
Brown on Friday granted 112 pardons for convicted felons who had completed their sentences and shortened the existing sentence of a man involved in a gang-related shooting nearly 20 years ago.
For the record:
6:18 p.m. April 25, 2024An earlier version of this story said attorney Thomas J. Dao spent six weeks in jail for selling marijuana. He served a six-month sentence.
For the dozens receiving pardons — the vast majority of which were for drug offenses — Brown’s action was both an early Christmas gift and an official end to a more troubled chapter of their lives.
“He’s saying you can have a second chance and we’re not going to hold that against you,” said Dana Pope, a Santa Clarita real estate agent who was convicted in 1996 of possession of a controlled substance. “I was young. I was on drugs. That’s not who I am today.”
As governor, Brown has shown a commitment to executive clemency that sets him apart from recent predecessors. Since 2011, Brown has granted 854 pardons and two commutations, according to the governor’s office.
That far exceeds the total pardons by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who granted 15; Gov. Gray Davis, who granted zero; and Gov. Pete Wilson, who granted 13.
Other California governors enthusiastically embraced the power to grant clemency, including Republican Govs. George Deukmejian, Ronald Reagan and Earl Warren, who granted 325, 574 and 522 pardons, respectively. Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, the current governor’s father, issued 467.
The twice-yearly list of pardons — Brown traditionally grants clemency around Christmas Eve and Easter — tends to be full of everyday Californians and former residents of the state whose brushes with the law are often years behind them. Applicants must obtain a certificate of rehabilitation from a court or directly petition the governor’s office. They must demonstrate that they are living productive and law-abiding lives. A pardon doesn’t erase a conviction, but it does allow the restoration of certain rights, like gun ownership.
“Pardons are not granted unless they are earned,” notes the governor’s office.
Using the power of clemency can be politically perilous.
Schwarzenegger on his last day in office commuted the sentence of the son of his political ally, former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. Esteban Nuñez was convicted for his role in the stabbing death of a college student.
Last year, in a rare celebrity pardon, Brown granted clemency to Robert Downey Jr., the actor who notoriously served time for drug-related convictions in the 1990s.
Brown had inducted Downey Jr. into the California Hall of Fame several months prior to the pardon. This year, Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan, gave a combined $70,000 to Proposition 57, the successful ballot initiative backed by Brown that revamped state prison parole rules.
Brown’s office had to withdraw a 2014 pardon after the Los Angeles Times found the man who was granted clemency had recently been disciplined by financial regulators.
On Friday, as this crop of pardons became official, pardoned felons reflected on their past lives.
Patrick O’Neil was a self-described “career heroin addict” for 20 years in San Francisco before a botched robbery landed him in jail. There, he took adult education classes just to pass the time and discovered a love of writing.
He since has earned a master’s in fine arts, began teaching creative writing at Antioch University in Los Angeles and written a memoir about his addiction.
“It saved my life, getting arrested,” he said. “I realized this is not where I wanted to go.”
Pope, now 48, is going on 20 years sober after battling drug addiction. She had her record expunged more than 10 years ago in order to get a real estate license, but she found her past continued to come up.
The pardon “puts the old me to sleep. That’s not who I am anymore,” she said. “I have a family and productive life.”
El Cajon attorney Thomas J. Dao, 35, said he is still embarrassed to remember he was sentenced for selling marijuana 15 years ago. But the six-month stint in jail he served also changed his life for the better: It spurred the then-20-year-old dropout to pursue his high school diploma, go to college and apply to law school. “It was a catalyst for change,” he said. “I really wanted to help people that didn’t understand the [legal] process. I wanted to understand the process myself, and all of that happened because of the conviction.”
For Norwalk resident Mark Maciel, Brown’s pardon capped a long road in transforming his life since he was sentenced in 1979 for assault with a deadly weapon.
Since he left prison, the 56-year-old Maciel has worked as a chaplain and motivational speaker in prisons and other correctional facilities, including with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Maciel serves as executive director of Prison Ministry of America, a nonprofit that provides religious literature and spiritual counseling to the incarcerated.
He said that Brown’s pardon held even more meaning for him because Brown was first governor when he was sent to prison 37 years ago.
“This is the final achievement for me,” Maciel said.
Brown also shortened, but not did not eliminate, the sentence of Louis Calderon, who was convicted of attempted murder, with an enhanced sentence for use of a firearm, for being an accomplice in a 1999 gang-related shooting in which a victim lost an eye. Calderon was sentenced to a total prison term of 32 years to life.
Calderon has broken ties with his gang and has never been disciplined for a rule violation in his 18 years in prison, Brown noted. Calderon has also earned multiple community college degrees and a paralegal certificate.
“This is a very serious crime, but it is clear that Mr. Calderon has distinguished himself by his exemplary conduct in prison and his forthright and continuing separation from gang activities of any kind,” Brown wrote. He reduced Calderon’s sentence to a total of 22 years to life.
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UPDATES:
8:35 p.m.: This article was updated to clarify a statement from Pope about her past.
This article was originally published at 3:45 p.m.
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