TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — On Tuesday nigh the people of Tallahassee go to hear from Florida Commissioner Nikki Fried, on pressing community issues.
Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried, answered questions from the Tallahassee community on Tuesday night.
Issues ranged from voting rights restoration to food and nutrition.
The hot topic? clemency.
"Her information on clemency I thought that was something that I am interested in trying to get people through that process to speed that up," said Sedra Butler.
According to the commissioner, there are over thirteen thousand people on the waiting list to go before the clemency board.
Fried hoping to reduce those numbers by asking the clemency board to change their approach.
"We can deal with almost half of that backlog almost eighty-two hundred of that backlog is simple restoration of civil rights and so if we just change some of the processes and the rules that go in there we can wipe out half of that list," said Nikki Fried, Commissioner of Agriculture.
The clemency board only meets four times a year seeing seventy to ninety cases per agenda.
Stanley Sims says, as an ex-felon, this issue is major.
"You're dealing with my freedom you're dealing with the restoration of my rights trying to restore myself back," said Stanley Sims.
Fried's goal is to bring awareness to the community.
"Educate people about this issue that really is going to start to make some changes and hoping that the members of the clemency board and my colleagues understand that the citizens our state of Florida are expecting change are wanting change and voted for change," said Nikki Fried, Commissioner of Agriculture.
Clemency hearings are open to the public and are held at the capitol.
Wednesday is the last hearing of the year for the Florida clemency board.
