Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has granted four new petitions for clemency, acted again on a previous case and denied 140 others. The first-term Republican first granted Neil Hebert clemency in 2015. He was convicted in 1992 of theft in Champaign County. However, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board says it was unclear whether the first granted petition would've allowed Hebert gun ownership rights. Friday's action does.
The other granted cases involve drug charges and aggravated battery. Rauner has reviewed 16 sets of petitions since taking office in 2015.
Granted clemency allows a petitioner to go to court to seek expungement of a criminal record. Each person granted clemency has undergone a background check.
In December, Rauner announced he'd eliminated a backlog of thousands of clemency requests inherited under previous governors.
