Pardon for Unarmed Robbery

**Thomas3344** · 05-11-2009, 02:05 PM

I have included many details so someone could me an accurate assessment.

Nine years ago, I was convicted of unarmed robbery in the state of new jersey but now live in Pennsylvania. I was told robbery of any kind is not expungable in New Jersey.This being so, I wanted to know what the chance are of a pardon.
1 Here are the circumstances.I was and 1st time offender and have not committed or convicted of anything since.

2 I was very intoxicated when this incident occurred and was trying to shoplift a $7.00 piece of fish. I had developed a serious problem with alcohol.

3. No one was hurt. I tried to swing at the uncovered security guard- missed -- and was tackled on the ground.

4. Was not even taken to jail but the police drove me home after charging me.

5. Hired an attorney who was a DUI specialist and he told me not to be concerned because I was a 1st time offender and no one was hurt and that it would be down graded.

6. Nine months later, attorney calls me out of the blue and says I need to hire a real criminal defense attorney because they want to put me in prison for up to nine years.

7. Did the best I could with hiring a criminal def. attorney with the limited money I had and ended up being convicted and serving nine months on house arrest which was lowered to 6 months due to good behavior.

8. I never even knew I was being indicted. I never knew that my - pre trial - intervention for 1st time offenders was denied- No one ever told me any of : they want to put you in jail for 9 months.

Do any of these factors help or count in a receiving a pardon. I was a professional in the field of psychology and with this offense sooooooooo many employers said - "No Thank You" when I tried to find employment once I took care of the drinking problem.

To say this incident was life altering is to understate. I went from being a professional with advanced degrees, experience and.... to washing dishes at Denny's Rest. and being rejected for apartments and anything else you can think of.

Does anyone know if I would be a candidate for a pardon or anything else.

Thanks

**Mr. Knowitall** · 05-13-2009, 03:10 PM

The New Jersey state constitution grants the governor the authority to issue pardons or grant clemency. (Article V, Section 2, Subsection 1). You can contact the parole board to see if they have any forms; I expect that it's a (very) long shot, but I don't see any formal information or statistics about how often New Jersey grants pardons.

**tc498** · 05-17-2009, 03:59 AM

A pardon removes the conviction and restores your rights taking away.It does help,places can still see the conviction,it's just excused.Sorry for the bad news. It would be worth taking to a lawyer and see if they have any suggestions.

**Thomas3344** · 05-27-2009, 05:41 PM

Thank you both.
I am not giving up! I could be overly optomistic but I cant help believe that even though I clearly made a very poor choice that for someone to steal a piece if fish worh 7 dollars and push a security guard and I had no prior convitions that someone in a position of authority is going to reexamine this and grant me some type of "grace" in the the legal system.
Thanks again and if anyone finds any other data that could help, please share.
Thanks