Hayes waiting again — this time for a full pardon

Jace Radke

Friday, Jan. 22, 1999 | 11:45 a.m.

Waiting is not foreign to Reggie Hayes.

For 13 years he waited for his release from prison at Indian Springs for a crime he says he didn't commit.

Now he is waiting to get back his right to vote and apply for a job without first checking yes to whether he has ever committed a felony.

Since his Nov. 21 release Hayes, with help from his family and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression, has been campaigning for a full pardon.

"I know that there is no way to get those 13 years back, so I'm just trying to move on," Hayes said. "I still have that ex-felon stigma attached to me and that has made it difficult to find jobs, but my family has been very supportive."

Hayes has sent a letter to Gov. Kenny Guinn's office requesting a pardon, and his attorney, Federal Public Defender Danice Johnson, says that the governor's office has forwarded the letter to the pardon's office.

"It is my understanding in talking to the pardon's board, however, that the process cannot go forward until Hayes fills out an application for a pardon and at this point he has not," Jack Finn, the governor's press secretary, said this morning.

Finn said only one letter has been received from a Hayes supporter and that it, too, would be forwarded to the board. The governor's office, he said, declined to comment on the case.

"Reggie is still classified as an ex-felon because in order to be released he had to plead to a kidnapping charge," Johnson said. "He was given parole and had to register as an ex-felon even though he committed no crime."

Ex-felons usually must complete five years of parole before they are considered for a pardon, Thompson said.

"That is why support from the community is so important," Thompson said. "What we are trying to impose on the parole and pardon boards is that this is an extraordinary situation with extraordinary circumstances."

Hayes was arrested at age 14 and was convicted along with three other black teenagers for the August 1985 murder of an Air Force sergeant and the wounding of four others in a shooting spree in August 1985. All four teens were given life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Hayes, who said he was only trying to catch a ride home and never handled a gun, was the only one to cooperate with police in the investigation, leading them to the victim's body.

Federal public defenders worked out a deal with the district attorney to reduce Hayes' conviction to kidnapping with eligibility for parole.

Supporters of Hayes are putting together a petition calling for his pardon, and will continue to write letters to Guinn, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and State Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, and State Sen. Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, alliance spokesman Daniel Bell said.

"I know that this may take some time, but I think it's necessary," Hayes said. "If I speak out then maybe it will help others in the same position I'm in."