Thousands of applicants are awaiting word from Gov. Pat Quinn after he granted 179 clemency petitions by Christmas Day.
Quinn has a few weeks left in office. He mostly worked through the backlog of cases from his predecessor, but there was a surge of new applicants during his tenure. He still faces about 3,000 cases.
Some attorneys feel a time crunch with Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner taking office Jan. 12. They say they don’t know how he'll proceed on clemency petitions.