Mark Wahlberg seeking pardon for 1988 assault conviction

(Image credit: Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

last updated 10 January 2015

Actor and producer Mark Wahlberg is asking the Massachusetts Board of Pardons to remove the assault conviction against him from his record.

The news was first reported Thursday by NECN. "Receiving a pardon would be a formal recognition that I am not the same person I was on the night of April 8, 1988," he wrote in his application. "It would be a formal recognition that someone like me can receive official public redemption if he devotes himself to personal improvement and a life of good works."

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In his application, Wahlberg writes that he supports the Dorchester Boys and Girls Club; started his own charity, the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation; and attends church almost every day. He also mentions that a pardon would help as his family's chain of restaurants, Wahlburgers, expands. "I want people to remember my past so that I can serve as an example of how lives can be turned around and how people can be redeemed," he wrote.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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