Jan. 11 — just nine days ago — was a date that former University of Illinois football player Matt Sinclair and former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner anticipated with excitement — but for very different reasons.
On the verge of leaving office, Rauner was determined to clear the backlog of clemency requests left to him in 2015 by the previous administration. Sinclair was hopeful that his petition — one of the 302 left for review — would be favorably received.
Both hopes were fulfilled.
Rauner got to the bottom of the pile. He denied 268 requests, while granting 30 clemencies and four commutations.