Dear registrants, family members, and supporters:
Many private attorneys and public defenders indicate that a pardon by the California governor will terminate your duty to register. Some attorneys charge thousands of dollars to submit pardon applications.
However, California Attorney General’s Office, which is responsible for maintaining California’s sex offender registry, will NOT terminate sex offense registration following a gubernatorial pardon grant, unless the Governor makes an express finding that the grantee is factually innocent of the sex crime triggering the registration requirement.
Governor Newsom has granted no pardons on this basis while in office.
These facts are explained on the Governor’s website and the website of the Judicial Council of California
Please consider this information before paying anyone to prepare a pardon application on your behalf.
Janice Bellucci
Why get a pardon in California then kind of pointless
Ouch, was hanging on to the glimmer of hope.
Does having the conviction expunged – it no longer shows in background check (no felony!) count?
That has been the same question of POTUS by many attys who feel a pardon by them will not relieve that requirement in the end.
On another note, but also about a Governors Pardon: What if you get a COR, and you also have more than two felonies? It is my understanding that the Cal Governor has to ask the supreme court for a majority vote to even move forward with the pardon. What about the person who has felonies in their background 30 years ago, then turned their life around and has been living a honest and clean life for 30 years. Is there any hope for this kind of situation? Here is a copy and paste of what I read on the Pardon link: The Governor cannot grant pardons to applicants with more than one felony conviction without the approval of the California Supreme Court. The Governor’s Office requests this approval if needed. Janice can you shed some light on this?
I just want to say that I firmly believe that the Registry will never end. It is entrenched in American law now.
I just accept that I am a prisoner in my own country and plan on retiring far away from here.
The pardon doesn’t remove the offense, so why would it dismiss one’s obligation to register. It seems the pardon at best gets a person out of incarceration if a crime was committed.
Your chances are higher of hitting the Powerball, curing cancer and marrying a rich person before being “relieved” of having to register.