SPRINGFIELD - As Gov. Rod Blagojevich moves into his second term in office, he faces a growing backlog of requests from people wanting him to clear their felony records.

According to the governor's office, there are more than 1,100 petitions for clemency sitting on Blagojevich's desk, waiting for his decision on whether to pardon people for crimes they committed.

That number has drawn the attention of legal rights advocates and created frustration for those who are waiting for him to act.

"I'm to the point where I want to get a protest going," said Kimberly Lawson, a Bloomington woman who has been waiting three years for the governor to act on her request to clear a felony she received 16 years ago. "I'm ready to go to the Capitol steps and stand there with a sign."

One expert calls the backlog an "embarrassment" that could hurt Blagojevich in the long run.

"He's making a problem for himself," said Washington, D.C.-based Margaret Love, a former U.S. Justice Department official who specialized in pardons. "The longer he waits, the bigger it gets."

Under state law, the governor has the final say on whether to grant requests for clemency. He acts on cases that are forwarded to him by the Prisoner Review Board, a panel that he appoints.

Love said the fact that the review board has forwarded the governor more than 2,000 cases since 2003 shows the administrative end of the process is working. Why the backlog has grown so large is unclear, said Love, who has authored a state-by-state resource guide on the consequences of a criminal conviction.

"The problem seems to be that he doesn't trust the Prisoner Review Board. If he doesn't like them, he should replace them," Love said.

In addition to Love's criticism, a group of nine defendants has filed suit in federal court calling on Blagojevich to act on the petitions within a reasonable amount of time.

The governor's office says Blagojevich takes his time with each case.

"We consider each request individually," said spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff.

And, Ottenhoff adds, there is no deadline for the governor to act on the requests.

Since taking office in 2003, the governor has been handed 2,100 recommendations from the Prisoner Review Board. Of those, he has acted upon 948. He has approved clemency in only 64 of the cases.

Record affects job hunting

For Lawson, it's been three years since she stood before members of the Prisoner Review Board and asked them to recommend that her 1990 felony conviction be erased.

The 41-year-old Bloomington woman was convicted of hitting a police officer during an investigation of a disturbance at a convenience store.

Lawson said she regrets the incident, which she blamed on panic. While police were investigating a disturbance, she ran from them, even though she wasn't a suspect. When a police officer caught up with her, she hit the officer. News reports of the incident note that the officer did not require medical attention.

At the time, Lawson said she didn't have the cash to hire an attorney who might have helped convince a judge to reduce her charges from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Sixteen years later, she now realizes the seriousness of her mistake every time she thinks about applying for a job. Because her felony record shows up on background checks, she has been unable to find work that suits her, despite graduating from Illinois State University in 2002.