Robert Downey, Jr. pardoned by California governor

California Gov. Jerry Brown has pardoned actor Robert Downey, Jr., for a drug conviction for which he spent more than a year in jail in 1996. 

The governor’s office on Thursday included Downey among 91 pardons issued on Christmas Eve, all of who have completed prison sentences and have gone at least a decade without committing further crimes. 

{mosads}The pardon notes that the actor was convicted for possessing a controlled substance, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle with a prior conviction, driving under the influence with a prior conviction and use of a controlled substance. 

“By the laws of this state it is proper that I, as Governor of the State of California, give testimony that, by completion of his sentence and good conduct in the community of his residence since his release, Robert John Downey Jr. has paid his debt to society and earned a full and unconditional pardon,” Brown writes in the boilerplate language affixed to the pardon. 

Downey, Jr., battled with addiction through the latter half of the ’90s, but has reportedly remained sober since, and has gone on to act in some of the most successful movies of his career.