A recommendation about whether to free Larry Hoover is now on Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk.
An outspoken Catholic priest and a former mayoral candidate told the Sun-Times they’ve pushed the governor to grant clemency to the former Gangster Disciples leader, although sources said state lawmakers aren’t actively lobbying now.
The Illinois Prisoner Review Board held a clemency hearing for Hoover on April 7 and confirmed this week that its recommendations had been sent to Pritzker.
“After the hearings are held, the board typically sends its confidential recommendations to the governor within 60 days. All recommendations on public hearings from the April docket have been sent to the governor, including Mr. Hoover’s,” said Liz Mitchell, a spokesperson for the board.
The board’s clemency recommendations are confidential. Under the law, the governor doesn’t have a deadline to review them.
A year ago, Hoover’s family and leaders of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus met with Pritzker’s staff to make the case that Hoover should be granted clemency.
Chicago activist Ja’Mal Green, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in the past two elections, said he helped organize the meeting.
“My direct message to the governor is simple,” Green said. “The governor believes in redemption. This is the governor’s moment to do the right thing.”
Despite the high-profile meeting last May, sources in the Black Caucus said its members haven’t been involved in similar high-profile lobbying of the governor on behalf of Hoover in recent months.
Hoover’s clemency petition poses potential political costs and benefits for Pritzker as he seeks reelection this year and mulls a possible run for the presidency in 2028.
Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church on the South Side, said he’s among Hoover’s supporters who have written to the prisoner review board and governor in favor of his release.
“The Cardinal [Blase Cupich] is not going to get involved in things like that, but he knows I sent a letter supporting it,” Pfleger said. “I don’t know if any other Catholic priests have.”
Pfleger said he doesn’t think the 75-year-old Hoover would be able to “come out here and solve the gang problem.” But he thinks Hoover is a changed person and “if he can influence one person or two people in their lives, that’s a win.”
“We can continue to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to keep him in prison — or let him out and he could save thousands of dollars by helping young people turn their lives around,” Pfleger said.
Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has asked Pritzker not to grant clemency to Hoover.
Hoover is in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections on a sentence of 150 to 200 years in prison for a 1973 murder, but it’s unclear where he’s being held.
Green said it’s unfair that Hoover remains in prison while an accomplice in the murder was paroled after serving 20 years. Hoover was convicted of ordering the killing.
Green said Hoover shouldn’t have to serve a life sentence for “using his words.”
Last year, President Donald Trump granted Hoover clemency for a separate federal drug conspiracy conviction for running a $100 million a year narcotics business in Chicago. Trump’s decision resulted in Hoover being transferred from federal to state custody.
Hoover is among 33 elderly Illinois “C-number” inmates who were handed “indeterminate sentences” rather than being sentenced to a fixed number of years in prison. Indeterminate sentencing was discontinued in 1978.
C-number inmates continue to have regular parole hearings, which are separate from clemency proceedings.
The prisoner review board has denied parole for Hoover for decades, saying in 2022 that his release would “not be in the interest of public safety.”