One of the constitutional duties of the Texas Secretary of State is to register all official acts and proceedings of the governor, including proclamations. Since 1869, the governor was required to file, in the office of the Secretary of State, his reasons for granting executive clemency. Between 1946 and 1960, the Parole Division of the Texas Secretary of State maintained records and prepared all clemency proclamations issued by the governor. All of these functions are documented in the Secretary of State's executive clemency records. These records include executive record books, clemency proclamations, indexes to clemency proclamations, applications for pardons and other forms of executive clemency, and registers of applications for pardons. They comprise records of executive clemency created by the Governors of the State of Texas, and maintained by the Texas Secretary of State, dating 1840, 1845-2009. Executive record books dating 1835-1917, are described more fully in a separate finding aid for the Texas Secretary of State (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/30057/tsl-30057.html). Those executive record books dating 1846-1917 are included here as a convenience to researchers looking specifically for pardon records, with the caution that they also contain an enormous amount of non-clemency material, such as correspondence, inaugural and valedictory addresses, executive messages, appointments, passports, extraditions, rewards, reports of state agencies, etc. Clemency proclamations, dating 1874-2009, usually give some or all of the following types of information: the proclamation number, the name of the pardoned individual, when convicted, where, the court, the crime, the punishment, length of sentence served, who recommends executive clemency, any conditions on the pardon, date of pardon, and the signatures of the governor and the clerk. Indexes to clemency proclamations, created by the office of the Texas Secretary of State, date 1846-1970. Applications for pardons and other forms of executive clemency, are organized as individual case files, and date 1840, 1845-1918 and 1932-1938 (the bulk dating 1880-1900). Types of records found in the applications include correspondence, petitions, court records such as indictments and transcripts, occasional proclamations from the governor granting a pardon or restoring citizenship, and certificates of prison conduct. Applications for pardons were created to request executive clemency from the Governor, and were maintained by the office of the Secretary of State to document the reasons for such clemency. Registers of applications for pardon date 1887-1891 and 1915-1940. Information included in these pardon registers includes number, name, county, offense, and punishment; each register is followed by an alphabetical index, which includes name, number, conviction date, and final action (including date of such). To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.
