Local News:
Brownback Grants No Pardons
Mon, December 12, 2011
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AP / Fletcher Powell
The Kansas constitution gives the governor authority to issue pardons, but they’re not common in the state. Former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius issued only one during her six years in office, in 2009 to a Kansas businessman who couldn’t get into Canada for business because of a drunken driving conviction.
Sebelius’ successor, Mark Parkinson, issued four pardons during his two years as governor. Of those, three were for members of the “Wichita 8,” a group of black men convicted of various robbery charges in 1969 by an all-white Sedgwick County jury.
