REQUEST FOR PARDON AND SECOND CHANCE

In Support of Arthur Robles

Lovelock Correctional Center, Nevada

To the Honorable Governor of Nevada, the Nevada Board of Pardons Commissioners, and Members of the Community:

My name is Arthur Robles, and I am currently incarcerated at Lovelock Correctional Center. I have been incarcerated for almost 31 years. I am respectfully asking for something I do not take lightly: an opportunity for a pardon, mercy, and a second chance at life.

When I was 23 years old, I was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. I was young, immature, and under the influence of drugs when the crime occurred. I want to be very clear that I am not using drugs or my age as an excuse for my actions. I take responsibility for what I did.

I understand that my actions had consequences far beyond myself. Nothing I say today can erase the past or undo the harm that occurred. What I can do is acknowledge my responsibility and demonstrate through my actions that I am no longer the same person I was more than three decades ago.

MY EARLY YEARS IN PRISON

When I first entered prison, I believed that I would never come home. I was young, angry, and without hope for a future. Instead of using my time productively, I became involved in gangs, drugs, and prison politics.

For years, I lived according to that mentality.

As I grew older, however, I began to understand that I did not want to spend the rest of my life living that way—even if I never walked outside of a prison again.

I made the decision to change.

Walking away from the gangs, drugs, and lifestyle I had known was not easy. In fact, distancing myself from the people and activities I had once been involved with placed me in danger and nearly cost me my life.

But I made a choice: I would rather change my life than continue being the person I had become.

MORE THAN TWO DECADES OF CHANGE

My transformation did not happen overnight. It has been demonstrated through years of choices, discipline, education, programming, work, and personal growth.

During my incarceration:

I earned my high school diploma/GED.
I successfully graduated from the SLP program.
I participated in a dog-training program, helping train dogs for veterans and first responders.
I worked as a gym worker.
I worked in the law library.
I stepped away from gangs, drugs, and destructive prison politics.
I have gone more than 20 years without a violent disciplinary write-up.
I have received only one major disciplinary write-up in approximately the last 15 years.
Those accomplishments may appear small compared with the seriousness of the crime that brought me to prison, but they represent decades of deliberate change.

At 23 years old, I often acted first and thought about the consequences later.

Today, I think about the consequences of my decisions. I understand accountability, patience, responsibility, and the value of human life in a way that I did not understand as a young man.

Thirty-one years have changed me. More importantly, I made the decision to change myself.

I AM ASKING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY, NOT AN EXCUSE

I am not asking anyone to pretend that my crime did not happen.

I am not asking anyone to excuse my actions because I was young or because I was using drugs.

I am asking that the person I am today be considered alongside the person I was at 23.

I have watched other individuals with serious convictions and lengthy sentences receive opportunities to return to society after demonstrating meaningful rehabilitation. Seeing those second chances has given me hope that perhaps I could one day be considered for the same opportunity.

I am not asking for special treatment. I am asking for the chance to demonstrate that rehabilitation is real and that a person should not forever be defined solely by the worst decision of his life.

MY PLAN IF GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE

If I am granted the opportunity to return home, I will not be returning without support or direction.

I have family support, people willing to help me transition back into society, and employment opportunities available to me. I am prepared to work, follow every condition required of me, continue building a productive life, and become a responsible member of my community.

After almost 31 years of incarceration, I understand that returning to society would require adjustment, humility, patience, and continued accountability.

I am prepared to do that work.

I am simply asking for someone to believe that the changes I have spent decades making are worthy of consideration.

If I am given this opportunity, I intend to prove through my actions that the decision to give me a second chance was not misplaced.

MY REQUEST TO THE GOVERNOR AND PARDONS BOARD

To the Governor and the Nevada Board of Pardons Commissioners, I respectfully ask you to review my life as a whole: the seriousness of my crime, the amount of time I have served, my acceptance of responsibility, my institutional history, my educational and rehabilitative accomplishments, my decades without violence, my support system, and the person I have become.

I cannot change what happened more than three decades ago.

But I can control who I am today and what I do with whatever life remains ahead of me.

I respectfully ask you to consider granting me a pardon or other appropriate act of executive clemency that could provide me with a meaningful opportunity to return to society.

PETITION TO THE PUBLIC — HELP US REACH 500 SIGNATURES

To everyone reading my story, I respectfully ask you to consider signing this petition in support of my request for a second chance.

Our goal is at least 500 signatures so that this petition and the voices of those supporting my request can be presented as part of my effort seeking consideration from Nevada’s leadership.

Your signature does not erase my past.

It represents a belief that accountability and rehabilitation can exist together and that after decades of demonstrated change, a person can be worthy of meaningful consideration for mercy.

I was 23 years old when my life changed forever.

Almost 31 years later, I am asking for an opportunity to show who I have become.

Please help me reach 500 signatures and give me the opportunity to present my request for a pardon and second chance.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story and for considering my request with an open mind and an open heart.

May God bless you.

Respectfully and sincerely,

Arthur Robles
Lovelock Correctional Center
Nevada

 

PETITION IN SUPPORT OF ARTHUR ROBLES

We, the undersigned, respectfully request that the Nevada Board of Pardons Commissioners and appropriate state officials give meaningful consideration to Arthur Robles’s request for executive clemency and a second chance.

We recognize the seriousness of his conviction while also asking that his nearly 31 years of incarceration, acceptance of responsibility, rehabilitation, educational accomplishments, institutional conduct, lengthy period without violent disciplinary infractions, family support, and demonstrated personal growth be fully considered.

By signing below, we respectfully ask Nevada’s decision-makers to review Mr. Robles’s individual circumstances and determine whether mercy and executive clemency are appropriate after more than three decades of incarceration.

GOAL: 500+ SIGNATURES

Name: ______________________________

Signature: ___________________________

City/State: __________________________

Date: _______________________________

Please sign and share Arthur Robles’s petition for a second chance.