Minnesota Gov Tim Walz, the veep pick by Prez candidate Harris, has his own notable criminal justice history

Multiple media outlets are now reporting that VP and Prez candidate Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.  I noted in this post last month that VP Harris was a distinctive nominee given her  extensive criminal justice experiences in California.  And, in his role as Governor of the North Star State, Tim Walz also has some notable criminal justice history. 

Of course, political science folks assert VP picks have very little or no impact on electorial outcomes.  But I am always inclined to believe that a VP can prove meaningful and perhaps even consequential on various policy fronts. Consequently, I think Gov Walz’s criminal justice history is worth a brief note on the day of his selection (and maybe more in the future).

For starters, here are a few prior posts from this blog discussing sentencing reform enacted in Minnesota that were signed into law by Gov Walz:

• New Minnesota law provides for prison alternatives for veterans involved in lower-level offenses (from 2021)
• Minnesota through new legislation becomes 28th state to prohibit juve LWOP (from 2023)
• Spotlighting the development of prosecutor-led resentencing movement (from 2023)

In addition, from my other blog, “Minnesota poised to become 23rd state to legalize marijuana for adult use” (from 2023).

My understanding is that these posts discuss only a portion of the criminal justuce reforms that have become law in the North Star State in recent years.  Moreover, I suspect that Gov Walz’s role as a member of the Minnesota Board of Pardons may be the activity that has most shaped his views on criminal justice issues.  This lengthy article from the New York Times about the Board’s work, which I flagged in this prior post, has lots of notable passages, including these:

But formal forgiveness in Minnesota comes only through the pardon board and its de facto chairman, Gov. Tim Walz, 59, a retired high school teacher and former congressman. When he took office in 2019, his knowledge of his newfound pardon power came mostly from movies. “Theoretically, I understood,” he said. “Operationally, no idea.” Now, with eight rounds of pardon hearings behind him and two days of hearings before him, the governor better understood the heartwarming, heartbreaking realities of this power of his….

Hours later, his pardon work done, the governor would return to his office in the landmark State Capitol, where everything down to the gold-rimmed coaster beneath his can of Diet Mountain Dew underscored his role as the quasi-sovereign of Minnesota. Just as Jim Lorge, former meth dealer, had represented seekers of mercy through the ages, so, too, did Tim Walz stand for those empowered over the millennia to dispense it.

Sitting at a long mahogany table, the governor would recount certain moments from the last two days, moments of joy and of pain. He and his two board colleagues had granted 17 pardon requests, denied three others and left the three other imprisoned supplicants with some measure of relief. They had granted mercy and withheld mercy.