Crime & Law
Waiting for Grace: Incarcerated People Hope Pritzker Addresses More Petitions for Clemency
Thinking of his sons brings tears to Alberto Zavala’s eyes.
“Everything that I’ve done has been because of them. Everything. My ultimate goal is to get back to them,” he said, holding back tears.
His sons are now in their early 20s, having grown up while their father was serving time on a 56-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“They inspire me to do better so I can be better,” Zavala said. “Because I want them to know that I’m not defined by my bad decisions and the reason why I’m here.”
Zavala, known as Beto, is scheduled for release in 2054. He’s been behind bars for 22 years, currently at Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, Illinois.
Over the years, he’s taken every educational opportunity he can find.
“Foundations to Criminology; Law, Politics and Mass Incarceration; a masculinity class; a feminist class. I took the InsideOut Dad class. That was one of the first ones I took, because I wanted to better myself,” Zavala said.
He said he takes those classes not just to be a better father for his sons, but also with the hopes of earning his release sooner than 2054.
Zavala is one of more than 1,100 people who submitted petitions for clemency to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board in 2021 alone. He’s one of 535 that landed on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.
Zavala is likely one of hundreds still sitting on the governor’s desk, awaiting an answer.
Late last week, President Joe Biden granted clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans, in addition to the pardon he gave his son, Hunter Biden, earlier this month.
Executive clemency is designed to extend mercy and restore opportunity for people who were convicted of crimes and have demonstrated successful rehabilitation.
But in Illinois, advocates say that grace has been slow to come for people with criminal records, some of whom are still in prison.
The Prisoner Review Board said just this year, Pritzker has granted only six clemency petitions. In 2023 he granted 57, and 11 in 2022. But he granted 144 in 2020 and 2021 each.
Graphic: “What is the Prisoner Review Board?” by Blair Paddock
Attorney advocates at the Illinois Prison Project said there are very few other options for the incarcerated to pursue for an earlier release from IDOC.
“Clemency is the only option in the state of Illinois that anyone incarcerated can avail themselves of,” said Jennifer Soble, executive director of the Illinois Prison Project. “There are other mechanisms for folks to be released, but they’re extremely narrow. So for the vast majority of people there is no way to say, ‘Hey, my sentence no longer makes sense, my incarceration no longer makes sense,’ other than clemency.”
To start the process, an incarcerated person petitions the Prisoner Review Board, with or without an attorney. Often they opt for a hearing to make their case.
“Successful petitions show the incarcerated person as they are today,” Soble explained. “They talk about the incarcerated person’s relationship with their loved ones. They talk about the incarcerated person’s path of rehabilitation from the initial incarceration to today. They show the incarcerated person’s hopes and dreams, and what they’ll do for their community if they’re able to return home. Rather than focusing on the crime of conviction, successful petitions offer a three-dimensional picture of the person who is currently incarcerated, who they will be if they’re released.”
As in most cases, Zavala included a statement of remorse for the murder that happened in 2001.
“I know I wasn’t there, and I didn’t pull the trigger, but it feels like I did this because Phillip McGovern lost his life over what I put in motion, which ultimately led to his death,” the statement reads.
Zavala was convicted for murder on the theory of accountability, meaning because he sent men to rob the victim to pay a drug debt, he, too, is responsible for the murder that happened when the robbery went wrong.
“Like so many people who’ve served decades of incarceration, Beto is now an older adult,” Soble said. “And statistics are abundantly clear that people age out of violent crime, they age out of crime entirely. And somebody Beto’s age, and given the period of time he served, has a likely recidivism rate of around 1%. Beto is like thousands of other people, though, in this regard: Continued incarceration makes absolutely no sense from a public safety perspective.”
But in addition to looking at who petitioners are today, board members must also consider their victims and their loved ones.
“We hear their pleas,” said Craig Findley, who served under five governors on the Prisoner Review Board, several times as chair. “Those victims, at least on the sentences for incarcerated people, their protests carry great weight with the board. Victimization is multi-generational. Victims of a crime committed in 1965, their children, grandchildren know the stories and carry grief throughout their lives. The victim protest is very important to be heard.”
Findley said board members consider both the crime all those years ago — and the person in front of them now.
“Equally important is the petitioner’s statement about facts of crime that led to their incarceration,” Findley explained. “Do they admit guilt? And if so, tell us what led to that and what you’ve learned from that crime. We want them to tell us about what the future will hold if they’re released. Do they have family support? Do they have a prospect for employment?”
But another concern that advocates have about the process is what happens after a petition is sent from the board to the governor’s office.
“At that point the whole application is in the governor’s hands,” Soble said. “At that point, the system is a black box.”
And that’s by law. Findley said that confidentiality is to protect the victims’ privacy, as well as the integrity of the process.
“It’s important to maintain some privacy to the victims…,” Findley said. “Clemency petitioners, I think, want to just wait. It’s difficult. Very difficult. And I don’t see a remedy. I don’t know there is a remedy that would provide transparency to the point that would breach our confidentiality reporting and pressure the governor to make a decision before he or she is ready to make that decision.”
And that decision can take time.
"We have had cases where a person’s clemency petition was granted in a matter of weeks after we filed them,” Soble said. “We also have cases right now that were filed in 2020 and are still pending.”
A spokesperson for Pritzker pointed out the governor has signed 389 clemency petitions since taking office.
“Since taking office, Governor Pritzker has focused on creating a more equitable, safe, and efficient criminal justice system in Illinois,” said Alex Gough. “While there is more work to be done reviewing cases and reforming this system, Governor Pritzker is proud to have made Illinois a leader on clemency action and prioritized justice.”
“It’s important to remember that the Prisoner Review Board has a staff that devote a great deal of their work — one person does nothing but clemency work — to winnowing petitions that can run into many hundreds of pages,” Findley said. “For us to review those and distill them into a fairly succinct report for the governor, and to include everything that was sent to us, for the governor’s staff to review those, and then sit down and talk about cases he wants to approve and those he wants to think about some more — it takes a lot of time.”
As a person with nothing but time, Zavala is prepared to wait, and maintain hope.
“I have a lot of plans upon being released from prison. I want to start my own trucking firm, a nonprofit vocational reentry trucking school,” he said. Though he’s never driven a truck, Zavala said he’s learned a lot about it since his incarceration, and has experience as a crane operator pre-incarceration.
“Everybody has a gift,” Zavala said. “You just gotta bring it out.”
Follow Brandis Friedman: @BrandisFriedman