Minnesota Clememcy Project
The Minnesota executive clemency process is an extraordinary opportunity for prisoners and individuals living with the consequences of criminal convictions to alleviate their sentences. Every six months, in a public proceeding, a few dozen get to present their cases directly to the Minnesota Board of Pardons, consisting of the Governor, the Attorney General and the Chief Justice. It is a moment, as Alexander Hamilton envisioned it, when the decision-makers granted the clemency power under our constitution can hear pleas “for a mitigation of the rigor of the law.”
In this project, we call on volunteer Minnesota lawyers to represent individuals in this pardon process who deserve relief from the rigors of our criminal laws. We hope that these efforts will, incrementally and empathically, move the needle on who should be convicted and incarcerated in our criminal legal system and for how long they should bear the consequences of their conduct.
Steps to get started.
- Setup your account and login. (If you have an account for the NACDL website, you can use that.)
- After you login, enter your email address to be notified when the training materials are ready.