Article from Seattle News Weekly

Remember the Governor listens to the recommendations of the Clemency Board but she alone decides to approve or deny the clemency request.

This article was written just a few years ago: Seattle News Weekly
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-07-04/news/gov-gregoire-one-tough-clemency-judge.php/

…Washington governor Chris Gregoire is already no Huckabee.

She has granted just 26 clemency requests out of the 215 she has received in her nearly five years in office.



That's according to a records review her office was already busy conducting yesterday when Seattle Weekly called for the figures. Compare that to the more than 1,000 petitions Huckabee said yes to during his 10 years as governor.

The governor makes the final determination about clemency…Gregoire will be "much more careful" before springing anyone from jail…

Still, he and Sheryl Gordon McCloud, another attorney who handles clemency cases, emphasize that Gregoire is already exceedingly tough. Unlike most governors, McCloud notes, Greogoire has turned down cases that the clemency board supported, including that of convicted murder Barry Massey, sentenced to life for crime he committed when he was 13.

(See Seattle News Weekly  2007 cover story on the subject.)