Richard “Gene“ Hill was arrested and convicted on drug charges for trying to sell cocaine when he was a young father. He served three years. “There is no explanation for what I did. Just poor choices,” he said.
But the “dark clouds” of that felony conviction followed him around for 30 years. “You’re applying for a job or something like that, and all of a sudden, lightning strikes.”
Not long ago, a friend who’d been urging Hill for years to look into getting a pardon took it upon himself to do some research. When he learned about the new Ohio Governor’s Expedited Pardon Project, he told Hill he was the perfect candidate.
And he was.
Never in trouble with the law again, Hill was welcomed by the YWCA to run the racquetball program after serving his time. He remains friends with his parole officer. He was a mentor for Team in Training, raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Today, he is an operations manager for a food distributor that seeks to employ workers with felony records.
“Everything I did, day in day out, wasn’t for the grand goal of getting a pardon. I always try to get involved,” he said.
This past March, some 10 months after beginning the intensive application process, Hill received a call from the Office of the Governor that he had been granted an expedited pardon.
Celebrating success
On a sunny Friday, July 29, Hill was one of 12 expedited pardon recipients and their families who attended a picnic at Akron’s Cascade Valley Metro Park hosted by The University of Akron School of Law. The picnic celebrated the 37 people who received an expedited pardon and another 133 who have been accepted into the program and are somewhere in the process. Also in attendance were representatives from the Office of the Governor, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC), the Ohio Parole Board, the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University, several community partners, and 17 Akron Law project team students and their families, along with faculty and staff—78 people in all.
Sarah Ackman, Deputy Chief Legal Counsel in Office of the Governor, and Akron Law Clinical Professor and Assistant Director of the School’s Legal Clinic Joann Sahl talk about the program at the picnic.
The Expedited Pardon Project was launched by Governor Mike DeWine in December 2019 as a partnership among the ODRC, the Moritz College of Law’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center (DEPC), and Akron Law’s Reentry Clinic. It provides a streamlined alternative to Ohio’s traditional but lengthy clemency process for certain rehabilitated persons who have consistently demonstrated that they’ve become contributing members of society.
“This was a celebration of success—to share the excitement and good news about the pardons received, to talk about the overall success of the project, and to build momentum for the future,” said Akron Law Clinical Professor and C. Blake McDowell, Jr. Professor of Law Joann Sahl, who also serves as assistant director of the school’s legal clinic and supervisor of the Reentry Clinic.
The Expedited Pardon Project process
On the front line of the Expedited Pardon Project are trained and supervised law students, primarily at Akron Law, who manage the initial intake and interview applicants to identify qualified candidates. The students report their findings in summary memos to Sahl and the team at Ohio State led by Doug Berman, Newton D. Baker-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law and executive director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center.
Sahl and Berman, in consultation with the Akron Law students and other staff members at DEPC, select the best candidates into the program. These individuals receive free one-on-one help with their pardon application from an Akron Law student who is taking Sahl’s one-semester, for-credit, Reentry Clinic course. They may also receive assistance from one of the community partners involved in the project, such as Cleveland-based LegalWorks. The Parole Board decides whether to recommend an applicant to the governor for a pardon.
To date, the project has received 437 initial applications. Some applicants don’t have the required 10-year clean record, or they can’t demonstrate a work record, community service and other outward signs of reform. Some have committed certain crimes that automatically exclude them.
“We’re all trying to make the process as expedited as possible, but at the end of the day, it’s an extraordinary amount of work for our teams and for the applicants,” Berman said. “A pardon application reflects the person's entire life, the good and the bad. They must complete an extensive questionnaire, collect all their criminal court documents, get letters of support and write a letter to the governor. This is where Professor Sahl's expertise come to bear, in understanding the kind of material the parole board and the governor care about.”
Carla Thomas, another expedited pardon recipient who was at the picnic, seconded Berman’s points.
“The process is arduous. Oh, it's daunting. When I started the process of getting records from everywhere, because my charge was from so long ago, it was like, wow,” remarked Thomas. "But I just stayed the course. Working with Ms. Sahl and her team, I always felt like I had support. If anybody knows her, [when she says] you will get it done, she means you will get it done. It is arduous, but it was the best decision I ever made in my life.”
Akron Law student Courtney Middleton (right) met Dana Killebrew, her first client in the Ohio Governor’s Expedited Pardon Project program, in person for the first time at the July picnic.
The student perspective
To date, 57 different Akron Law students have represented (or are now representing) 125 expedited pardon applicants, gaining valuable hands-on legal experience in the process. Courtney Middleton, an evening J.D. student and candidate for graduation in May 2023, has been part of the Expedited Pardon Project since she took the Reentry Clinic course in summer 2020.
“I had no legal experience prior to law school, so I’m thankful for this project and how it’s helped me understand criminal law and the people affected by their time in the court system,” Middleton said. “Some days you're almost in tears listening to what applicants have lived through and overcome. Other days you’re smiling simply because of how fun-loving the person is.”
At the picnic, Middleton was able to talk with the first client she worked with in the project, Dana Killebrew.
“He recognized me from our Zoom calls. He was so excited,” she recalled. “He wanted the pardon so he could go to school and get a job in nursing. He asked me if we could get a picture together.”
A bright future
The Expedited Pardon Project got a boost late last year when the General Assembly approved the governor’s proposed $1 million grant to bring three other Ohio law schools into the program and to fund some paid public service announcements (PSAs) and Google search ads. A separate ODRC grant is helping community partners to spread the word and assist people with their applications.
“The program had a slow start because of COVID, but it's really picked up speed,” said Sarah Ackman, deputy chief legal counsel in the Office of the Governor. “The number of applications we're receiving is definitely increasing. When I meet with an attorney about another clemency case or just someone out in the community, I'm hearing more and more people talking about it. That’s a really good sign that the word is getting out.”
And not just in Ohio. “The clients are from everywhere,” Sahl said. “We had one two weeks ago who now lives in Alaska. We have one next week who's in Montana. We're working now on the case of our first international applicant, who currently lives in Canada.”
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