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83 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. Online 1 (2025-2026)

handle is hein.journals/waleelro83 and id is 1 raw text is: Pardon Me Please: Evaluating Clemency for Marijuana Offenders Mitchell F. Crusto* Abstract Since 2012, several states and municipalities have decriminalized the non-violent use and possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana by adults. These criminal law reforms raise the issue of whether individuals who were convicted in the past should be exonerated retroactively by way of pardons or clemency. Consequently, many past marijuana offenders remain in state prisons for committing acts that are no longer deemed illegal in many states. Furthermore, these prisoners, as well as persons who were formerly accused or imprisoned, suffer from the stigma and negative collateral consequences of their alleged criminality. In response to these injustices, many governors have granted clemency to a broad group of such past offenders. Despite those governors who have granted clemency, there are other governors who want to grant such clemency but have not been able to do so. This raises the * J.D., Yale Law School; M.A., University of Oxford; and B.A., Yale College. The Henry F. Bonura, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. I am especially grateful to my colleagues of the John Mercer Langston Black Law Professors Organization and to Loyola law graduates Jillian Morrison, LaTreshia Hamilton, and Laurel Taylor, and for the generosity of the Henry F. Bonura, Jr. Family, the Alfred T. Bonomo, Sr. Family, and the Rosario Sarah LaNasa Memorial Fund. This study was funded by a Marijuana Grant Award from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, to whom I am eternally grateful. This essay and study follow up on my prior related articles Weeding Out Injustice: Amnesty for Pot Offenders, 47 HASTINGS CONST. L.Q. 367 (2020) and Juvenile Justice & Diminished Criminal Culpability, 78 U. MIA. L. REV. 670 (2024). Further, I am grateful to and thank the diligent work of the editorial staff of Washington & Lee Law Review Online. 1