Some highlights from AJC reporter Alan Judd’s recent series on the lack of transparency at the state Board of Pardons and Parole:
Aug. 24 AJC
“At a time when public debate over firearms laws often begins and ends at bad guys with guns versus good guys with guns, Georgia is muddying the waters by enabling record numbers of felons to legally re-arm themselves, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found.
The state Board of Pardons and Paroles restored the firearms rights of more than 1,400 felons between 2008 and 2013. Last year alone, the board granted 666 pardons that restored gun rights, a tenfold increase from six years earlier.
At the same time, the board has dramatically increased the proportion of gun-rights pardons going to violent offenders. … In 2008, such offenders received 6 percent of all Georgia gun-rights pardons. By 2013, they accounted for 31 percent.
Of the 358 violent felons who regained their gun rights over the six years, 32 had killed another person, and 166 were convicted of drug-related offenses. Forty-four committed sex crimes, including seven who are listed on the state’s sex offender registry.
All are free to buy, sell, own or carry firearms without restriction, as if their crimes had never happened.
Despite repeated requests, the parole board’s five members declined to be interviewed. They also directed staff members not to comment.
A board spokesman said members follow strict guidelines regarding gun-rights pardons. Felons must have completed their sentences and any probation or parole at least five years earlier. They cannot have been arrested for additional crimes. At least three people outside their families must attest to their rehabilitation. The pardons reinstate felons’ constitutional rights to bear arms without erasing their criminal records.
“So much investigative work goes into the case files, ” said Steve Hayes, the board’s spokesman.
But the Journal-Constitution’s review of dozens of parole board cases, using court records, police reports and other public documents, calls into question the rigor of the board’s investigative protocol. It also suggests board members take into account little or no information available outside the narrow confines of their routine procedures.
Aug. 25 AJC
Pardons with gun rights once existed primarily for those who committed property crimes, minor thefts or other offenses that caused no physical harm to their victims. Sometimes, the pardons excused youthful mistakes by people whose records as exemplary citizens had spanned decades.
But in a departure from trends in many other states, Georgia has dramatically increased the proportion of violent offenders among those regaining firearms privileges, the Journal-Constitution found in analyzing gun-rights pardons granted to more than 1,400 felons from 2008 to 2013. Violent offenders accounted for 6 percent of all who received gun-rights pardons in 2008; last year, 31 percent.
The parole board has restored gun rights for 32 people who committed murder or other forms of homicide, 43 sex offenders, 96 people convicted of aggravated assault, and 68 whose crimes included weapons offenses. Thirty-eight of those 68 had been found guilty of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon — a crime that a gun-rights pardon renders moot.
