In rare move, California court denies 10 clemency requests

The California Supreme Court denied 10 clemency requests by former Gov. Jerry Brown, the first time it has exercised that power in more than half a century.

The Sacramento Bee reports Brown granted a historic 1,332 pardons and 283 commutations during his final two terms as part of a push to scale back the state's tough-on-crime approach that began under his first governorship. But the court blocked 10 of those requests in the final weeks of the Brown administration, which ended this month. The court hasn’t rejected pardon or commutation requests under a governor's consideration since 1930 but earlier noted it had the authority in the case of an "abuse of power."

A court representative said the justices aren’t planning to provide any further clarification.