Nevada’s Democrat attorney general wants to be governor, and his record on the state pardons board shows votes for mercy in 30 murder cases.
Story Highlights
- Attorney General Aaron Ford has voted to pardon or sharply cut the sentences of 30 people convicted of murder, according to a review of pardon-board records.
- The cases include a man police and prosecutors called a “thrill killer” and a man who killed a 16-year-old execution-style in the desert.
- Ford called parole eligibility for one convicted killer a “no-brainer.”
- Ford’s office and campaign did not respond to requests for comment on the review.
- Ford, a Democrat, faces Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo in the Nov. 3, 2026 election.
What Ford Backed And Why It Matters
Ford sits on Nevada’s Board of Pardons Commissioners, and in a June 2025 decision he backed a commutation for Anthony Amati, the man called a “thrill killer,” that made Amati immediately eligible for parole. A commutation shortens a prison sentence or opens an earlier chance at parole; it does not free anyone by itself. Amati was convicted of ambushing a 22-year-old Pizza Hut worker who was walking a co-worker home. A deputy district attorney argued that Amati should never be eligible for release. These votes matter to voters because Ford is asking for the governor’s office, and the governor sits on the same board.
How one inmate's clemency request took over the Nevada's governor race
A request by Democratic governor candidate Aaron Ford to the state pardons board has thrust the normally sleepy agency into the political spotlight
via @tabitha_mueller @TheNVIndy https://t.co/byf55rsc69— Howard Stutz (@howardstutz) October 12, 2026
Ford’s campaign website says he has “worked with federal and local law enforcement” to prosecute criminals, and that he has focused on child predators and fentanyl trafficking. In the case that drew the most heat, covered below, his office said he would have voted no. Clemency is the broad word for a pardon or a shortened sentence.
How Nevada’s Pardons Board Works
The board has nine members: the governor, the attorney general and the seven justices of the Nevada Supreme Court. It meets four times a year and hears up to four inmate cases at each meeting. Clemency needs at least five votes. A 2020 ballot measure took away the governor’s veto over board decisions, so no single member can grant or block relief alone. When the board makes someone parole-eligible, a separate parole board still decides whether that person is ever released.
That process played out in the cases on Ford’s record. In 1996, Michael Cu kidnapped a 16-year-old, forced him to drive into the desert and killed him execution-style to steal the rims off the car. The board commuted Cu’s sentence, making him eligible for parole in 2035. Ford supported that move, and Lombardo voted against it. In September 2025, Ford sponsored the hearing for Bobby Thomas, who stabbed a 17-year-old to death, and called parole eligibility for Thomas a “no-brainer.”
The Pregnant-Victim Case That Lit The Fuse
The fight grew sharper over Norman Smith, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2015 killing of Tineshea Adams, a pregnant woman, and of armed robbery. Ford sponsored Smith’s commutation request, which was on the board’s Sept. 16, 2026 agenda. Sponsoring a request puts it up for a hearing. Ford missed that hearing, citing a family emergency, and the board denied the bid. His office said sponsoring is routine, and that Ford “can unequivocally state that he would have voted no to any form of clemency.”
Fellow Democrats kept their distance. State Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, who is running for attorney general, said, “I disagree with the decision and would not have sponsored the clemency petition.” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, also a Democrat, endorsed Lombardo for the first time and cited the governor’s public-safety record. Lombardo has criticized Ford’s support for clemency in the Smith case.
The Rest Of The Record
Ford also backed clemency for a carjacking murderer, a man who stabbed a 17-year-old over a basketball game, and a man who lured a victim to his home with a fake drug deal and shot him. He supported clemency for Arlander Givens, who beat a victim to death with a cinder block, but the board denied that request. In a June 2022 case for a man who killed someone during an armed robbery at age 15, Ford said, “I gleefully vote yes for this motion.”
Not every vote split along party lines. Ford and Lombardo both voted to pardon a man convicted of planning a contract killing after DNA evidence cleared him. The record shows the pattern voters will weigh on Nov. 3: a board where mercy takes a majority, and an attorney general who was often in that majority in murder cases.
Sources:
foxnews.com, thinlinenews.com, noticias.foxnews.com, dailycaller.com
