Pardons and Parole Chair Replaced by Governor Following Pressure from Republicans

A few weeks ago, it was uncovered that during the pandemic, the Chairman of the Board of Pardons and Paroles (BOPP) unilaterally instituted a procedure for violent criminals to have decades shaved off their sentences, and released.

This was done without legislative or executive branch approval. This procedure, which usually results in an average of three applications granted per year, resulted in NINETY EIGHT commutations in 2022 alone!

Last week during debate on the House floor, several of my colleagues and I questioned who made those decisions, how they were made and if the victims and their families were considered. You can watch a brief video clip of that debate by clicking below.

Today, Governor Lamont announced the replacement of the Chairman of the BOPP. Here’s hoping that there is no recidivism by those already released.

In response, I released the following statement:

“I’m encouraged that the governor appears to be just as concerned with the recently-implemented changes to long-standing Board of Pardons and Paroles practices regarding which violent criminals can have their sentences reduced and when, that he chose to make a leadership change and I look forward to Chairperson Zaccagnini’s tenure, and hopefully a reversal of this drastic change in “policy” implemented without legislative or executive branch approval,” Rep. Fishbein, Ranking House member on the Judiciary Committee said. “I do find it interesting that it took repeated questioning by Republican legislators on the Judiciary Committee raising myriad concerns about how those changes were made and by whom that the governor has now chosen to act.”