{"id":220585,"date":"2026-03-15T08:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T08:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/220585\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T08:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T08:56:10","slug":"on-this-day-in-1972-merle-haggard-received-a-full-pardon-from-then-california-governor-ronald-reagan-he-gave-me-a-second-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/220585\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1972, Merle Haggard Received a Full Pardon From Then-California Governor Ronald Reagan: \u201cHe Gave Me a Second Chance\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before he was a pioneering figure of the outlaw country movement, Merle Haggard was just a plan old outlaw. In 1958, after a life of petty crime, a botched jail attempt landed the 19-year-old new father in one of California\u2019s most infamous prisons<\/a>\u2014San Quentin. Fortunately for Haggard\u2014and generations of country music fans\u2014he turned his life around upon his release, building one of the most storied careers in history. On this day (March 14) in 1972, the \u201cOkie From Muskogee\u201d singer officially received a second chance when Ronald Reagan\u2014then governor of California\u2014granted him a full pardon for his past crimes.<\/p>\n

How Ronald Reagan Changed Merle Haggard\u2019s Life<\/p>\n

On Nov. 3, 1960\u2014after nearly three years behind bars for attempted robbery\u2014a 23-year-old Merle Haggard walked out <\/a>of San Quentin a free man. Unfortunately, he would soon learn that his newfound \u201cfreedom\u201d was largely nominal. An international superstar, Haggard had to declare his legal history any time he traveled out of the country for performances.<\/p>\n

No amount of No. 1 hits, it seemed, could erase the stigma of being a convicted felon\u2014until March 14, 1972, when Reagan officially pardoned him. His friends and family members had been working on this behind the scenes, but kept the 20-time ACM Award winner in the dark until the last minute, according to Saving Country Music.<\/a><\/p>\n

For Haggard, this day 54 years ago marked the second-most significant of his life (behind only his father\u2019s death when he was 9).<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you can imagine yourself, you got this tail hanging on you, and suddenly you don\u2019t have it anymore,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s just wonderful not to have to walk up and say, \u2018Pardon me, before I do this I want to tell you that I\u2019m an ex-convict.\u2019 You have to do that with any sort of legal transaction, while leaving the country, with anything of that nature. All those things went away when Ronald Reagan was kind enough to look at my case and give me a pardon. He didn\u2019t have to do that. He could have just snubbed his nose and went on to lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Merle Haggard Recalled Seeing Johnny Cash Perform While Behind Bars in California\u2019s Infamous San Quentin Prison]<\/a><\/p>\n

Reagan\u2019s decision \u201cmeant everything,\u201d Haggard said. \u201cHe gave me a second chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He Got to Thank Reagan in Person<\/p>\n

Ten years after the decision that changed his life, Merle Haggard performed for <\/a>Ronald Reagan\u2014now president of the United States\u2014at the latter\u2019s Sierra Grande Ranch in California in March 1982.<\/p>\n

Before performing songs like \u201cOkie From Muskogee\u201d and \u201cAre the Good Times Really Over?\u201d Haggard said, \u201cI hope the president will be as pleased with my performance today as I was with his pardon 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image by Bettman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before he was a pioneering figure of the outlaw country movement, Merle Haggard was just a plan old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44378,7,9,8,44992,14408],"class_list":["post-220585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-1970s","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-country-music","tag-merle-haggard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}