The Plan

Currently, California Clemency is not yet a law. Nor will it be used as a “Get out of jail free card” for those bent on committing crimes. In other words, it has safeguards to prevent abuse.

It is a proposed Constitutional Amendment for the state of California that once it becomes law, will FIRST, offer new hope to the innocent who sit behind bars in the California prison system.

With its streamlining process to hear cases and avoiding countless current appeals just be heard, many prisoners falsely accused and convicted will have new hope, minus the years and years of appeal after appeal under current law by having average pre-screened use their fresh eyes to judge the cases for qualified prisoners.

But this proposed new law is also a comprehensive approach to prison perform as well as justice reform by simply offering clemency as the answer to gross injustice.

Its inventor, Allen Jones, estimates it will need $10 million in funding to get on a future California ballot, where he is confident voters will judge its merits by making “California Clemency Boards” law.

“Today, an idea, tomorrow a law.”

 Background:

CALIFORNIA PENAL CODE
SECTION 4800-4801 

4800.  The general authority to grant reprieves, pardons and commutations of sentence is conferred upon the Governor by Section 8 of Article V of the Constitution of the State of California.

4801. (a) The Board of Parole Hearings may report to the Governor, from time to time, the names of any and all persons imprisoned in any state prison who, in its judgment, ought to have a commutation of sentence or be pardoned and set at liberty on account of good conduct, or unusual term of sentence, or any other cause, including evidence of intimate partner battering and its effects. For purposes of this section, "intimate partner battering and its effects" may include evidence of the nature and effects of physical, emotional, or mental abuse upon the beliefs, perceptions, or behavior of victims of domestic violence if it appears the criminal behavior was the result of that victimization.

Proposed Constitutional Amendment:

1. Repeal the authority of the governor’s power to grant clemency and any sentencing commutations in the State of California under penal code section 4800.

2. Adopt a new law for clemency protocol as the State's standard practice known as the California Clemency Boards, by its inventor Allen Jones. This new clemency process would supersede all known and unknown laws in the State of California, dealing with clemency and sentencing commutations. The California Parole Board shall send all recommendations to the new Sacramento office of California Clemency Boards under penal code section 4801.

3. Create a State elected clemency administrator (2 four-year terms) to handle all affairs of this new agency, including that prisoner requests are delivered to the county level in a timely manner and make rulings on fairness or fraud in the clemency board.