Man locked out of work by prison of his past

By Abigail Goldman

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 | 2 a.m.

The Nevada Board of Pardons has been told that Conan Pope must prove himself before his voluntary manslaughter charge is pardoned.

But Pope can’t prove himself, really, if he can’t get a job. And he can’t get a good job unless he gets pardoned — unless he no longer has to tell potential employers about how, at age 15, he killed his dad.

Death was a pattern in the Pope household. Pope’s father, Frank, spent four years behind bars for fatally smothering his infant daughter in the 1960s. While incarcerated, Frank reportedly admitted to killing another daughter as well.

Conan, in turn, served almost six years for fatally shooting his father in 2000. The teenager told Judge Michael Cherry he did it to protect himself and his sister from a father who physically and sexually abused them. Pope pleaded guilty to manslaughter rather than go to trial and detail the grim workings of his father’s household.

At sentencing, Cherry was sympathetic: “I know it’s been a horrific experience for you, Conan Pope,” he said. “You’re still a little boy. You’ve got a lot of time to grow up. I hope the prison time doesn’t set you back ... I’m going to pray for you. Every day. And hope things get better for you.”

So far, things are not getting better.

Parole and probation officers, as well as the Clark County district attorney, have recommended Pope not be pardoned. In a letter to the Pardons Board, county prosecutor Steven Owens noted, among other things, that Pope, now 25, “has failed to exhibit exemplary behavior for an extended period of time.”

Pope spent most of his teenage life in adult prison, where he had a number of exploitative encounters — to put it gently — with adult offenders.

Since his 2006 release, he’s held a few jobs for short periods, and teetered on the verge of homelessness. Every time he applies for new work, attorney Kristina Wildeveld says, background checks yield the manslaughter conviction and Pope, an apprentice electrician, can’t get work flipping burgers.

If pardoned, Pope won’t have to disclose his past to prospective employers. (Of course, the Internet, and its archive of Pope’s ordeal, is a beast that can’t be silenced.)

Beyond this, the pardon would also give Pope some kind of relief, Wildeveld said. It would mean the actions of a troubled teen do not sentence the man he’s become to an invisible life sentence; without bars, but stuck in place just the same.

Pope’s case is an extreme example of something happening across the country. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that job seekers are flooding courts with requests to seal old charges popping up in new job interviews. Clark County District Attorney David Roger has seen an increase in record sealing requests, from roughly 15 a week to about 10 a day.

Because of the severity of his charge, Pope’s only option is a pardon from the board, which includes Gov. Jim Gibbons and Cherry, the same judge that sentenced Pope, now a state Supreme Court justice. Pope will appear before the board this morning in Carson City.

While Wildeveld is confident her client will be successful, the board has reportedly never pardoned anyone convicted of such a violent crime. On Tuesday, on the set of “Face to Face With Jon Ralston,” Pope sat with hands clasped, stiff in a white dress shirt fastened tight around the neck.

He admitted that he should have asked for help instead of shooting his father.

“I could have gone more out to people,” he said, “saw that they would have stepped in and helped out the situation, contacted police for me, but I don’t know if that would have been enough.”