The pardon process is supposed to function as a way to make right when the justice system gets it wrong, but the pardon process is slow and can take years to get a decision— if at all. The reason there are so many pardons in the queue is because we live in a system where policing protects whiteness at the expense of Black lives. Pardons are a political game— find a senator or a representative who will grease the wheels of a pardon. Innocent Black folk, especially Black men, spend years sitting in prison or trying to have their rights restored. They work against criminal records they didn’t earn. They are often in prison because white people were inconvenienced. They spend years waiting on the pardon they should never have had to file in the first place. Their children grow up without parents, learning what happens to Black people who dare to take up space in white supremacist culture. Matthew Rushin was just 19 and a college student when he was sentenced to 50 years for a car accident that was a result of undiagnosed seizure disorder. He had the audacity to be imperfect and disabled while Black, and thus was deemed a danger to society. While he received a partial pardon, the law was not respected. It is not a crime to have a seizure. Courtlon “Champ” Turner was attacked by a white man with a butcher knife. He fought the man off, kept them both alive, called 911, then waited for police. As soon as police arrived, they arrested Champ and took his attacker to the hospital. Champ Turner was sentenced to ten years in prison. Terrence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne have been incarcerated for over 20 years. In 1998, a white officer was killed in Waverly. Randomly, Black men were rounded up, and despite not matching the witness description of the murderer and zero evidence, Terrence and Ferrone were implicated. They are still incarcerated. Brian Faulcon was accused of a robbery he didn’t commit. Even with DNA evidence that should exonerate him, Brian Faulcon still must wait for white people to do the paperwork and work the bureaucracy that has never held space for Black folk or included us in any meaningful way. And for protesting these and other wrongful convictions, and the wrongful deaths of many Black lives at the hands of police, both Pops Holmes and Japharii Jones, Black activists, are facing incarceration for stepping into an inactive trolley lane during a peaceful protest against police misconduct. Black people deserve better than to suffer in perpetuity waiting on white bureaucrats to leverage laws written by and for white people to give them access to freedom. We could be protesting for fair wages, equal opportunity, or spending our efforts building community supports— except we are being forced to beg people to stop shooting us and locking innocent people in cages.