Gov. Ed Rendell has been granting pardons at a much faster rate than most of his predecessors.
Rendell, a Democrat, has granted 231 pardons and denied 31 requests during two-and-a-half years in office, the vast majority for minor offenses.
Republican Tom Ridge, who campaigned aggressively to limit the clemency process, granted 270 applications and rejected 140 during nearly seven years in office.
If he is re-elected and maintains his current pace, Rendell would issue more pardons than any other modern governor, Democrat or Republican, who has served two terms.
Governors may grant two forms of clemency -- pardons and commutations. Pardons restore legal rights and privileges lost upon conviction, such as the right to purchase and carry a gun and employment rights. Commutations reduce the length of sentences for those currently incarcerated.
Before their requests for clemency get to the governor's desk, applicants must first get a majority of the five-person Pennsylvania Board of Pardons to vote in favor, or a unanimous vote in the case of those sentenced to life or on death row.
Currently awaiting action by Rendell are 133 clemency applications approved by the Pardons Board, including two from convicted murderers asking to have their life sentences reduced. Michael H. Anderson has been waiting more than two years, and George Gregory Orlowski more than one year, for the governor to act.
About half of Rendell's pardons have involved theft-related offenses and about one-fifth were granted to those convicted of drug offenses or drunken-driving. The most serious crimes among his pardons include aggravated assault, statutory rape, prison escape and arson.
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