New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday granted clemency to 13 people, including several convicted of drug crimes decades ago and two serving life sentences for murder.
Hochul's announcement follows a promise she made in 2021 to use her executive clemency powers on a rolling basis instead of granting pardons and commutations just once a year during the winter holiday season. Since becoming governor, she has granted clemency to 72 people, according to her office.
A spokesperson for Hochul said more than 1,600 clemency applications are currently pending: 1,184 for sentence commutations, including reduced prison time, and 472 for pardons. Criminal justice advocates have urged her to commute the sentences of more people who are still in prison. In the past few years, Hochul has streamlined the state’s clemency application website and started sending status updates to applicants as requests continue to pile up.
Most of those who were granted clemency on Friday were not in prison and received pardons for drug or theft charges that they were convicted of decades ago. Hochul said the pardons would alleviate the consequences of having a criminal conviction on their records, including threats to immigration status and challenges seeking employment.
The governor announced that two people will get to go before the parole board earlier than they would have been allowed to under their original sentences. These sentence commutations stop short of guaranteeing that either person will be released but increase their chances of release.
One of the commutation recipients is Yohannes Johnson, 67, who otherwise would not appear before the parole board until he turns 99, according to Hochul's office. He has served more than four decades of a 75-year-to-life sentence for a second-degree murder and first-degree robbery conviction from 1982. He was convicted of killing a cab driver, Erroll Blackwood, and attempting to kill another, Andrew White, after robbing him at gunpoint, court records show.
In prison, Johnson became known as “Knowledge,” often passing his time in the library and hauling piles of books and newspapers to his cell, Gothamist reported in 2020. He also regularly attended Quaker worship services and joined a group pushing for prison reform, according to the report.
Johnson said at the time that he started to sell drugs when he was 11 years old and had already served two terms in prison before he was charged with murder in his 20s. He said he was ashamed of what he had done and was committing his time in prison to mentoring others.
“He exemplifies the capacity for human beings, including those convicted of serious harm, to change our lives and be a positive force in our communities,” Jose DiLenola, clemency campaign director for the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, said in a statement.
Jermaine Swaby, 41, was 19 when he left a nightclub in Brooklyn and shot Shane Reynolds five times, killing him, according to court records. Swaby argued at trial that he was acting in self defense. He has served more than 22 years of a 25-year-to-life sentence for a second-degree murder conviction.
Joel Rudin, Swaby’s attorney, said in a statement that his client now “bears little resemblance to the impulsive 19-year-old who took a life during a moment of extreme stress.” He said Swaby has earned his GED, become certified in legal research and facilitates discussions about peaceful conflict resolution. Rudin added that young people convicted of crimes “should be held to a different standard of punishment than adults due to their psychosocial immaturity and should be sentenced accordingly.”
Hochul’s office said both Johnson and Swaby “have demonstrated remorse and a commitment to rehabilitation.”
