If you or someone you love has a conviction in Mississippi and is looking for a pardon, this guide is written for you. Mississippi's pardon process has two features that every applicant needs to know before doing anything else. First, the newspaper publication requirement is written directly into the Mississippi Constitution: applicants must post notice in a local newspaper in the county of conviction at least 30 days before submitting the application to the Governor. This is not a form to fill out or a fee to pay after submitting; it must happen before the application is even sent. Second, the political environment for pardons in Mississippi has been deeply affected by the Barbour pardon controversy of 2012, and the two Governors who followed him issued no pardons at all during the following twelve years. Understanding the history matters when calibrating expectations. I have been through the system myself, and most of the fear comes from not knowing how the process works. So let me walk you through it in plain language. None of this is legal advice, and every case is different, so treat this as a map and lean on a lawyer for the turns.
What Mississippi offers: the forms of clemency
The Governor of Mississippi has full clemency authority under Article 5, Section 124 of the Mississippi Constitution, except in cases of treason and impeachment. The forms of clemency include full pardons, restoration of civil rights, commutation of sentence, reprieves, and suspensions of sentence.
A full pardon restores civil rights and removes employment disabilities, including the right to own and possess firearms. Upon a pardon, Mississippi issues a Judicial Certificate of Rehabilitation, which declares that the offender is no longer subject to prosecution for the pardoned offense and that the applicant has led a useful, law-abiding life since completing the sentence and is not likely to be a danger to public safety. A pardon does not expunge or seal the criminal record; that requires a separate court-based expungement process that operates independently of the pardon process and applies to different eligible offense types.
A commutation of sentence reduces or modifies an active sentence for someone currently incarcerated.
Who decides: the Governor and the Parole Board
The Governor of Mississippi holds final and exclusive authority on all clemency decisions. The Mississippi State Parole Board, composed of five full-time members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, has exclusive responsibility for investigating pardon cases at the Governor's request. When the Governor's office receives a facially meritorious pardon application, it is sent to the Parole Board for investigation. The Board generally requires letters of recommendation from the community and family and a statement of unusual circumstances. The Board holds hearings on meritorious applications, at which the victim may participate if registered with the statewide automated victim information system. The investigation and hearing process can take several months. The Board then submits its recommendation to the Governor. The Governor is not bound by the Board's recommendation and may grant or deny clemency without providing a public explanation for the decision in either direction.
The constitutionally required newspaper notice
The Mississippi Constitution's pardon provision contains a requirement that applies before the application is even submitted: all applicants for executive clemency must post notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county of conviction, setting forth the reasons why clemency should be granted, at least 30 days before making application to the Governor. This is not a step that can be done concurrently with the application or after it is submitted; it must precede the application itself.
This requirement distinguishes Mississippi from most other states in this series. In Kansas, newspaper publication is required before a pardon can be granted, and failure renders the pardon void. In Mississippi, the publication must occur before the Governor even receives the application, making it a jurisdictional prerequisite to the process.
The 2012 Mississippi Supreme Court case In re Hooker addressed this notice requirement in the context of the Barbour controversy. The court declined to invalidate pardons where the newspaper requirement had not been met, holding that compliance with procedural constitutional provisions committed solely to another branch of government was not justiciable. But the constitutional requirement itself remains in the Mississippi Constitution, and applicants should comply with it fully, carefully document that compliance before submitting their petition, and be prepared to demonstrate compliance if questions arise. Noncompliance, even if it does not automatically void a pardon, is a procedural deficiency that should not be risked.
Who is eligible for a pardon in Mississippi
There is no statute setting a formal waiting period, but the Governor's office informal policy requires applicants to wait seven years after completion of the entire sentence before submitting an application. Completion of sentence may include not only incarceration and supervision but also payment of all fines and restitution.
Mississippi state court convictions are eligible. Federal convictions and out-of-state convictions are not eligible for a Mississippi state pardon.
The application process step by step
Step one: comply with the newspaper publication requirement. At least 30 days before submitting the application, publish a notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county of conviction, setting forth the reasons why clemency should be granted. Document this publication carefully: save the newspaper clipping, obtain a publisher's affidavit confirming publication dates, and keep copies of everything.
Step two: prepare the application. Mississippi does not have an official pardon application form available online, and the Governor's office does not publish guidelines on what the petition should contain. The application is a written request to the Governor setting out the details of the conviction, the sentence served, the period of law-abiding conduct since completion of the sentence, the reasons clemency should be granted, and the specific relief being sought. Gather letters of recommendation from community members, family members, employers, and others who can speak to rehabilitation. Include a statement of unusual circumstances that support the request.
Step three: submit to the Governor's Office. After the 30-day newspaper notice period has passed, submit the written application, the documentation of newspaper publication, and all supporting materials to the Office of the Governor, Attention: Legal Division, P.O. Box 139, Jackson, Mississippi 39205-0139. The telephone number for the Governor's office is 601-359-3150. The Governor's office reviews applications and determines which are facially meritorious, and only those judged meritorious are forwarded to the Parole Board.
Step four: Parole Board investigation and hearing. Facially meritorious applications are forwarded to the Mississippi State Parole Board for investigation. The Board may require additional information, will conduct a background investigation, and will hold a hearing on the application. The victim or victim's family may participate in the hearing if registered with the statewide system. The Board then submits its recommendation to the Governor.
Step five: Governor's decision. The Governor reviews the application and the Board's recommendation and makes a final decision. There is no required timeline for the Governor to act. Applicants receive notification of the Governor's decision.
What a pardon does and does not do in Mississippi
A Mississippi pardon restores civil rights that were lost as a result of the conviction, removes employment disabilities imposed by state law, and restores the right to possess firearms. Upon granting a pardon, Mississippi issues a Judicial Certificate of Rehabilitation declaring that the applicant has demonstrated rehabilitation and is not likely to pose a danger to public safety.
For voting rights specifically, Mississippi's constitution contains a list of specific offenses that result in permanent disenfranchisement regardless of when the sentence was completed. A person convicted of any of these listed crimes, which include murder, rape, bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, and bigamy, can only have voting rights restored through a pardon or through a change in state law. This list-based approach to disenfranchisement makes Mississippi an outlier: in most other states in this series, voting rights are restored automatically on sentence completion or close to it, but in Mississippi, conviction for any listed offense results in permanent disenfranchisement unless the Governor exercises clemency. For the many people whose convictions fall on this list, a pardon is not just about employment or firearms; it may be the only path to ever voting again.
A pardon does not expunge or erase the conviction from the criminal record. The conviction will remain visible on background checks even after a pardon. If record clearance is the goal, Mississippi has a separate court-based expungement process that applies to certain eligible offenses and is the appropriate path for someone seeking to clear the record rather than simply restore civil rights.
The Barbour pardon controversy and its aftermath
Mississippi's pardon history cannot be discussed honestly without acknowledging the 2012 controversy. On his final day in office in January 2012, outgoing Governor Haley Barbour issued 215 clemency grants, including 189 full pardons, many of them for serious violent offenses including murder. The controversy included pardons for individuals who had not complied with the constitutional newspaper notice requirement. The Mississippi Supreme Court ultimately upheld the pardons in In re Hooker, but the episode caused a massive political backlash. Governor Phil Bryant, who succeeded Barbour, publicly stated that he would not pardon anyone and kept that pledge for the entirety of his eight-year term from 2012 to 2020. Governor Tate Reeves, who took office in 2020, had issued no pardons as of 2026. Mississippi has been in a period of essentially zero pardon activity for over a decade, and the Parole Board reportedly received very few applications during the Bryant years precisely because the political environment made the process seem pointless. Anyone applying for a pardon in Mississippi should go in with their eyes open about this context. The process exists and is legally available, but the practical environment has been deeply inhospitable to pardon grants for more than a decade.
A note on federal convictions
If the conviction is a federal conviction rather than a Mississippi state conviction, the Governor of Mississippi and the Mississippi Parole Board cannot help you. Federal clemency is granted by the President of the United States, and applications go through the Office of the Pardon Attorney within the United States Department of Justice.
Where this leaves you
Mississippi's pardon process has two significant structural realities. The first is the constitutional newspaper publication requirement, which must happen at least 30 days before the application is submitted and which should be documented carefully. The second is the political reality: the Barbour scandal in 2012 effectively shut down the pardon process for over a decade, and no pardons have been issued since. The seven-year informal waiting period, the absence of an official form, the irregular process, and the current political environment all point toward the same conclusion: pardons in Mississippi are very rare and unpredictable, and the process requires patience, thorough preparation, and realistic expectations about timing and likelihood. If record clearance rather than rights restoration is the primary goal, the court-based expungement process is the more accessible path for eligible offenses. If voting rights restoration is the primary concern and the conviction falls on the constitutional list of permanently disenfranchising offenses, a pardon is the only available state-level path, which means the difficulty of the process in Mississippi's current political environment is something to assess carefully with an attorney before committing time and resources to it.