Less than two months before leaving office, Gov. Tony Evers granted the first commutations in Wisconsin in 25 years, including for violent offenses.
Of the 24 applicants whose cases the Commutations Advisory Board heard in August and September, Evers reduced the sentences of 14, according to a Friday announcement. Those selected include people convicted of crimes such as homicide, armed robbery and drug dealing. Five were convicted when they were under 18.
One grantee, Michael Maldonado, was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide at age 15. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1995, with eligibility for parole in 2044. Maldonado’s sentence was modified in 2025 after new evidence showed he was not the gunman in the crime he was sentenced for, according to the governor’s office. Following his Friday commutation, Maldonado will spend a maximum of four more years in prison before transitioning to parole.
Like Maldonado, most of the people who received commutations will remain incarcerated for months or years, as many of the commutations reduced lengths of confinement or moved up when someone will be eligible for parole. Only one person, a woman who was serving a 30-year sentence for a burglary conviction, was granted immediate release with two years of extended supervision. Evers recognized the length of her sentence and rehabilitation behind bars, including serving “as a kitchen worker, maintenance worker, chaplain’s assistant, library clerk, tutor, and community service worker.”
Hundreds of people have applied for commutations since Gov. Tony Evers reopened the process in April. No commutations have been issued since Gov. Tommy Thompson’s administration.
Evers has issued a record 2,443 pardons, an official forgiveness available only to those who completed their full sentences, including any extended supervision, at least five years ago. By restoring certain civil rights and privileges, pardons can make it easier to get a job, housing or a professional license.
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While the governor’s office noted that some district attorneys supported the applications of a few individuals seeking commutations, others opposed action by the commutation board. Nathan Haberman, the Republican Calumet County district attorney in a July letter wrote that he objected to the commutation of Sammy Cole, one of the 14 grantees included in the Friday announcement, who was convicted of armed robbery with threat of force in 2001.
“There have been four circuit court judges who have reviewed the sentencing in this case, along with the court of appeals on at least three occasions,” Haberman wrote. “Further review and second guessing by a less informed Commutation Advisory Board is not necessary nor appropriate in this case.”
Citing “positive adjustments and rehabilitation while incarcerated,” Evers reduced Cole’s confinement from 35 to 28 years, which means he will remain incarcerated for another four years and then have 10 years of extended supervision once he is released.
Among those who urged the governor to grant clemency is Shannon Ross, founder and CEO of The Community, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit which helps incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people pursue education and develop as leaders.
He said he’s “really, really happy” for grantees who would otherwise have had to wait many years for the opportunity to apply for release — if they were allowed such an opportunity at all. “It’s a great thing for them and their families that there’s daylight now in a place that had no daylight,” Ross said.
But, he said, he and his fellow clemency advocates are also “very, very sad and grieving” about applicants they believe deserved the chance to “come home and help the community.”
And he’s worried about grantees who will need to go before the parole board. According to Ross, the board has approved numerous parole applicants but has yet to release anyone on parole this year.
“This year has been a really, really slow, if not nonexistent, parole process,” Ross said. “If that doesn’t change, these potentially could be hollow commutations. The hope now is that the way parole has been operating starts to go back to where it has been in previous years, where people are genuinely getting released when they’ve done all the things they’ve been asked to do by the system.”
Meanwhile, the number of prisoners in Wisconsin hit a record high in October. According to the Department of Corrections, the state’s prisons now house nearly 6,000 people more than they were designed for.
What’s next for commutations?
Decisions are still pending for the 23 prisoners who participated in the two more recent hearings. An Evers spokesperson said the governor intends to “at least approve or deny” every applicant who has received a hearing before he leaves office.
The commutations board is scheduled to meet again on Nov. 20 and on Dec. 11 to hear another 25 applicants. It is not clear if there will be additional meetings before the end of Evers’ term on Jan. 4.
Also unknown is how the commutations process will change when Milwaukee County Executive and Governor-elect David Crowley takes office in January. In April, Crowley told Wisconsin Watch he would work with the Legislature to “institutionalize” Evers’ commutations process but that he “would not allow commutations of murderers.”
Under Evers’ executive orders, only those previously convicted of sexual assault, physical abuse or sexual exploitation of a child, trafficking of a child, incest or soliciting a child for prostitution are ineligible for commutations.
Ross is optimistic that Crowley will continue what Evers started, and that those who don’t receive commutations under Evers might be eligible to apply again. He said he and other advocates will work with the new administration to create a policy that addresses the concerns of incarcerated people, crime survivors and the public as a whole.
“I just don’t want anyone who sees their name or their loved one’s name on the ‘denied’ list to think that it’s all over with,” Ross said. “This is the beginning of what we are definitely aggressively working to have continue under the new governor. So, hopefully, this is Governor Evers providing an apparatus and an example that Governor Crowley can now continue, and we are actively pushing for that to be the case.”
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