Quinn Grants 75 Pardons, Clemency Petitions
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) -- A Chicago woman who was paroled 45 years ago is among dozens pardoned or granted clemency by the Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday.
As WBBM Newsradio's Lisa Fielding reports, Quinn granted 75 clemency petitions, and denied 131.
He granted a pardon and expunged the criminal record of Ida Mae West, who was paroled in 1966 after killing her abusive husband.
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The Chicago Tribune reports West was 20 and pregnant with her second baby when her drunken husband began beating her at a friend's West Side apartment. West grabbed a knife in self-defense, and her husband walked into the knife and died of the resulting puncture wound, the Tribune reported.
West, now 68, pleaded guilty to a lesser offense and spent less than a year in jail, but has been burdened with a criminal record ever since, the Tribune reported.
Quinn also commuted the sentence, but did not pardon, a man who has maintained his innocence in two Peoria murders in 1977.
Johnnie Lee Savory was 15 when he was convicted of double murder but eventually won a new trial after an appeals court said his confession had been coerced. He was convicted again and eventually paroled in 2006.
Even though he was not pardoned, the end of Savory's parole means he can take custody of an older sister who suffers from developmental disabilities, and travel without the consent of his parole agent, the Tribune reported.
