Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday unveiled an overhaul of the guidelines she will apply to pardon and commutation applications, which her office said "explicitly outline" for the first time how a governor will deploy executive clemency as a tool to "address unfairness and systemic bias in the criminal justice system."
"The Governor views executive clemency as a means of addressing unfairness in the criminal justice system. As such, she will consider whether issuing clemency would address a miscarriage of justice and if continued incarceration would constitute gross unfairness," her office wrote in a news release.
Martin Healy of the Mass. Bar Association said the new guidelines "clearly reflect a more fair and equitable approach to the clemency process by taking into account both historical injustices and modern criminal justice jurisprudence."
The guidelines were last updated by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2020.
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Healey, who served as attorney general for eight years before winning election to the corner office, also recommended two new pardons Tuesday. She proposed forgiveness for Robert Miller, who was convicted in 1992 of counterfeiting licenses, and for Eric Nada, convicted in 1996 on distribution of a Class A controlled substance. Both men were in their early 20s at the time they were convicted.
