State high court orders unsealing of governor’s pardon documents

The California Supreme Court has ordered the governor's office to unseal documents relating to the previous administration's pardoning of a former state senator, documents attorneys believe will finally shed light on a process they say has been shrouded in secrecy.

"This is a small batch, but it's the material the governor's office went to the mat on," said Davis Wright Tremaine LLP attorney Thomas R. Burke, who filed the motion to unseal on behalf of the First Amendment Coalition. "Significant portions that were unsealed will shed even greater light on the clemency process."

He received the state high court's order at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

In January, under direction from the court, the governor's office released the majority of the 297-page "pardon file" for former state Sen. Roderick Wright, who was convicted as a felon in 2014 for perjury and voter fraud. People v. Wright, BA361187 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 13, 2010).

However, 18 pages, indexed as the Pardon Investigation Report and Wright's criminal history summary, more commonly known as a rap sheet, was redacted.

Those records will now be made public, in spite of the attorney general's assertion, per a motion to seal filed in conjunction with the January release, that disclosure of the redacted information would violate the governor's "deliberative process privilege" and Wright's privacy rights.

"This court made clear in Times Mirror v. Superior Court that the deliberative process privilege is a well-established common law privilege under both state and federal law," the office of Attorney General Xavier Becerra argued in a February brief. "As a common law privilege, the deliberative process privilege is not limited to the Public Records Act context, but rather in that context is invoked through the act's statutory exceptions."

Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye granted the state's motion to keep the clemency filed under seal in part but determined public access to details contained in the Pardon Investigation Report and rap sheet outweighed the government's concerns.

"In light of the specific facts and circumstances of this matter, the public right of access overcomes the justifications provided for nondisclosure," she wrote for the en banc court.

Justice Joshua P. Groban recused himself from the en banc order. Groban was a senior adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown and likely involved in motions pertaining to Wright.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's office declined to comment on the court's ruling but noted the attorney general's motion to seal the pardon report and the rap sheet was filed Jan. 2, prior to the current governor taking office.

Newsom did indicate a need for transparency in the clemency process at a press conference this week.

He noted 10 of Brown's commutations were blocked by the Supreme Court in December and said he needs "to understand [the court's] process more fully before we move forward with next steps potentially around commutation." Twice-convicted felons must have their commutations approved by the state high court.

Burke, who has filed motions to unseal in five additional clemency cases, said Wednesday's order to unseal may not have been what Newsom had in mind, but he, like any other member of the public, may get some sense of clarity when it comes to the process.

"As a matter of process, this [decision to unseal] is a significant change," Burke said. "If Newsom has said, 'We don't know why they're denying this,' hopefully this process change will provide some insight into that as well."