News: The long road to clemency under Murphy

Monday, December 2, 2024

The long road to clemency under Murphy

Dec 02, 2024

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Good Monday morning!

Last week for Thanksgiving, Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way pardoned a pair of boozy birds named Prosecco and Pinot Noir in a cute gesture emulating the annual White House tradition.

While your usual Playbook author jokingly observed that it’s questionable whether the lieutenant governor has that authority, I couldn’t help noticing that the actual governor has not exercised his clemency powers yet.

So for those not keeping track: The Murphy administration has pardoned two turkeys before pardoning any humans.

It seems more than a little odd for a governor who campaigned heavily on social justice issues to spend seven years in office to grant zero pardons — especially given the injustices Murphy so frequently spoke about when he was pushing for marijuana legalization.

By my count, Murphy’s Republican predecessors Christie Whitman, Donald DiFrancesco and Chris Christie collectively issued more than two dozen pardons or commutations before their final year in office. And Murphy is the first Democrat since Jim McGreevey to not issue clemency in his first term.

To be fair, Murphy isn’t doing nothing. He announced earlier this year that a Clemency Advisory Board will recommend which clemency applications get expedited to the front office. In his executive order creating the panel — No. 362 since 2018 — Murphy noted the different ways he’s made “significant progress in reducing the unduly harsh collateral consequences” of a conviction by reforming the expungement process, restoring voting rights to people on probation or parole and lowering licensing barriers for those with criminal records.

Murphy said last week he is “hoping that we will have news to make” before the December holidays. “I mean specific names and lives that have been commuted or pardoned,” he said on News 12. “It’s a historic program that we’ve put out there.”

In that same order creating the review board, Murphy acknowledged that more than 155,000 people are imprisoned, on parole or on probation in New Jersey — a relatively small number, sure, but each one represents a person.

In September, I attended the memorial service for the late dean of the Statehouse press corps, Michael Aron. One of the most moving moments, among many, was when a man named Quincy Spruell spoke humbly how Aron’s documentary helped lead to his release from prison — 14 years after it aired. Aron did the journalistic work of raising questions about Spruell’s guilt in a 1985 robbery and killing, and it still took more than a decade before Spruell was freed. Democrat Jon Corzine, who was at Aron’s service — along with McGreevey and former Gov. Tom Kean Jr. — partially commuted Spruell’s sentence in one of his final acts as governor, in 2010.

By then, Spruell had served 24 years of a 30-year sentence.

Spruell’s story moved people to tears, probably because it is a human example of the adage that justice delayed is justice denied. Phil Murphy will likely end up serving justice to a lot of people before he leaves office, but it makes me wonder why it took so long to get here.

TIPS? FEEDBACK? Email me at dracioppi@politico.com

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I am pleased to nominate Charles Kushner, of New Jersey, to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to France. He is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests.” — President-elect Donald Trump, naming Jared Kushner’s father — convicted in 2005 of making illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering in a sordid family revenge plot — to the coveted diplomatic post. (Trump pardoned Kushner in 2020.)

TIPS? FEEDBACK? Email me at dracioppi@politico.com

WHERE’S MURPHY? No public schedule

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WHAT TRENTON MADE

TRIAL AND ERROR — “Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez demands new trial over evidence error,” by New Jersey Monitor’s Dana DiFilippo: “Attorneys for former Sen. Bob Menendez and two businessmen convicted last summer of bribing him want a federal judge to vacate their convictions and order a new trial, saying an evidentiary error prosecutors recently revealed deprived the men of a fair trial. Prosecutors alerted the defense and Judge Sidney H. Stein two weeks ago that they accidentally uploaded nine documents to a laptop jurors could consult during deliberations that had fewer redactions than Stein had ordered. But in a flurry of filings Wednesday, defense attorneys say they since have found two more insufficiently redacted exhibits given to jurors — including one in which Menendez co-defendant Fred Daibes referenced Adolf Hitler.”

BYE GEORGE! — The brief but busy reign of Sen. George Helmy is coming to an end, by POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: Sen. George Helmy, a New Jersey Democrat, is making his brief tenure at the Capitol a busy one. Last Monday, Helmy was on the Senate floor to give a complex speech about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The remarks were based on a trip to the Middle East he took during the roughly 12 weeks he’ll be in office after Gov. Phil Murphy picked him to fill disgraced Sen. Bob Menendez’s vacant seat. The next day, a day after walking the tightrope of Middle Eastern politics, Helmy was back to make joint remarks with Sen. Katie Britt, the Alabama Republican. They are both backing bills to rein in social media companies because of their effects on children’s mental health. While the two may not agree on much else, she praised the Democrat. “You hit the ground running, I hope the people of New Jersey and America know that,” Britt said. “This man got to work before Day 1.”

REGISTER NOW: As the 118th Congress ends, major decisions loom, including healthcare appropriations. Key focus: site neutrality. Can aligning hospital and clinic costs cut federal spending, reflect physician costs, and lower patient expenses? Join policymakers and providers to discuss.

NORCROSS-ING THE DELAWARE — “Newly released FBI wiretap documents reveal glimpse of George Norcross-John Dougherty relationship,” by The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeremy Roebuck and Andrew Seidman: “John J. Dougherty and George E. Norcross III were each at the peak of their power. It was 2016, and Dougherty, the forceful Philadelphia labor leader and head of the city’s largest electricians’ union, had just marshaled his union’s money and manpower to help elect his brother Kevin to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and longtime friend Jim Kenney to the mayor’s office. Across the Delaware River, Norcross, the Camden County insurance executive and Democratic boss of South Jersey, had been quietly making moves that appeared to have put his vision for revitalizing Camden’s waterfront within his grasp … But the two power brokers shared something else that neither man knew at the time. Both were under federal investigation.”

MAPLEWOODN’T — A local Democrat says not endorsing Sherrill for governor cost her backing for mayor, by POLITICO’s Daniel Han: A local Democrat claims that not endorsing a candidate in New Jersey’s 2025 gubernatorial election cost her support needed to become the mayor of her city — and it’s quickly being picked up as an issue in the Democratic primary for governor. In remarks posted on Facebook, Maplewood Township committee member Deborah Engel said her elected colleagues supported her to become mayor. But Engel said that support deteriorated after she declined requests to endorse a candidate for governor.

— “NJ still ranks among most debt-burdened states”

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BIDEN TIME

— “One U.S. Port Wants a Bigger Payday From Surging Ocean Trade”

Want to know what's really happening with Congress's make-or-break spending fights? Get daily insider analysis of Hill negotiations, funding deadlines, and breaking developments—free in your inbox with Inside Congress. Subscribe now.

LOCAL

RIP — “Former Newark Council President Mildred Crump Dies,” by TAPInto Newark’s Sam Haut: “Mildred Crump, a trailblazing public servant who was the first Black woman to serve on the Newark City Council, died Sunday. She was 86. Crump first ran for council in 1986, but was not elected until 1994, initially serving until 1998. She served again from 2006 until she resigned for health reasons in 2021. In 2006 she became the first woman elected as council president, a position now held by her son, Lawrence Crump.”

CHERRY BOMBS — “Cherry Hill school district staff barraged by threats, 'vile' email over inadvertent release of student names,” by 70and73’s Janel “Jaycee” Miller: “Administrators at the Cherry Hill school district have come under extreme fire from the public after inadvertently releasing the names of 174 students who opted out of a controversial Family Life curriculum.District Superintendent Kwame Morton said at Tuesday evening's Board of Education meeting that members of the district staff have been subjected to 'a tremendous amount of vile, vulgar, disgusting emails (and) posts as well (containing) racial epithets, threatening messages and things that truly have no place.'"

— “Jamesburg taps longtime GOP operative as new mayor”

— “A Familiar Name Resurfaces in Morristown”

— “Jersey Shore town to settle litigation with state over beach erosion but there’s a catch”

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