A Bill regarding Connecticut Pardons:

General Assembly		Substitute Bill No. 170
January Session, 2007	*_____SB00170JUD___041007____*

AN ACT CONCERNING PARDONS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Section 54-130a of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2007):

(a) Jurisdiction over the granting of, and the authority to grant, commutations of punishment or releases, conditioned or absolute, in the case of any person convicted of any offense against the state and commutations from the penalty of death shall be vested in the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

(b) [Said] The board shall have authority to grant pardons, conditioned, provisional or absolute, for any offense against the state at any time after the imposition and before or after the service of any sentence.

(c) The board may accept an application for a pardon three years after an applicant's conviction of a misdemeanor or violation and five years after an applicant's conviction of a felony, except that the board, upon a finding of extraordinary circumstances, may accept an application for a pardon prior to such dates.

[(c)] (d) Whenever the board grants an absolute pardon to any person, the board shall cause notification of such pardon to be made in writing to the clerk of the court in which such person was convicted, or the Office of the Chief Court Administrator if such person was convicted in the Court of Common Pleas, the Circuit Court, a municipal court, or a trial justice court.

[(d)] (e) Whenever the board grants a provisional pardon to any person, the board shall cause notification of such pardon to be made in writing to the clerk of the court in which such person was convicted. The granting of a provisional pardon does not entitle such person to erasure of the record of the conviction of the offense or relieve such person from disclosing the existence of such conviction as may be required.

(f) In the case of any person convicted of a violation for which a sentence to a term of imprisonment may be imposed, the board shall have authority to grant a pardon, conditioned, provisional or absolute, in the same manner as in the case of any person convicted of an offense against the state.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	October 1, 2007	54-130a

Statement of Legislative Commissioners:

Section 1(c) was rephrased for clarity.

JUD	Joint Favorable Subst.