Updated 4:35 p.m.

SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown on Monday pardoned a former Portland gang member for a crime he committed 25 years ago, marking only the third time she has granted clemency in office.

Dondrae Fair, 44, grew up in Northeast Portland during the height of the city's crack epidemic and turned to the streets at a young age. He served a five-year prison sentence for an armed robbery in 1992, a felony conviction that followed Fair as he worked to transform his life and those of other young men caught up in a cycle of poverty, drugs and violence.

Fair severed his gang ties in 2000, devoting himself to a growing family and serving as a mentor and advocate for gang-affiliated men in Portland who have been to prison, a role that's earned him distinction among prosecutors and other members of the criminal justice system.

During a private ceremony in the State Capitol, Brown praised Fair's "extraordinary" story.

"Mr. Fair's own history of overcoming personal challenges and turning away from gang life lends him the credibility to be such an impactful role model to the young men he mentors," she said.

The governor's pardon will remove the robbery conviction from Fair's record.

Fair, known to many by his childhood nickname "Choo," said the decades-old conviction, as it does for many men and women, has held him back in life both professionally and personally. It kept him from getting jobs when he was fresh out of prison. Later, his felony conviction prevented him from volunteering at Portland elementary schools or even attending fieldtrips with his children.

Fair also said that new mandatory background checks at his current work with Volunteers for America, a nonprofit group that receives federal funding, threatened his employment.

"It's like a house being lifted off your back," he said in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive.

He added that his pardon could serve as an inspiration for many of the gang-involved men who attend a nine-month program he leads that permits early parole upon completion. "I come from that lifestyle," Fair said. "I want my story to give them hope."

Fair said he grew up on Northeast Killingsworth Street without a father. As a kid in the late 1980s he witnessed firsthand how his predominately black neighborhood became consumed by drugs, violence and prostitution as crack cocaine swept through the area.

When his mother became an addict, Fair said he formed a gang with children who were impoverished and abandoned. "They became my family," he said.

Fair's robbery conviction, which stemmed from an incident in which he used a gun to take someone's car, was far from his only arrest. He landed in jail over assaults, thefts and other crimes.

In 2000, just months after the birth of his eldest son, he was shot in the chest on his way to a liquor store.

Soon after the near-fatal shooting, Fair decided he had enough. He quit the gang life. He focused his energy on his wife, Teressa, and their children, which soon grew to five.

Fair began mentoring troubled young men through Volunteers of America in 2009. He helps them land job interviews or look for housing. He fields their phone calls and takes them out to lunch. He draws on his own life experience to connect.

"He's the one who comes to visit you in jail. He's the one that will answer your phone call on a Sunday," said Jamarie Herring, 22, a Southeast Portland man who recently completed Fair's program. "He comes from where we come from. What he says and does is real."

The Criminal Justice Reform Clinic at Lewis & Clark Law School worked with Fair to complete his pardon petition, which he filed in September. It included letters from family members, including his wife and eldest daughter. But Fair also received recommendations from members of Multnomah County's criminal justice system.

Among those who supported his clemency: the Portland police officer who investigated Fair's 1992 robbery, multiple probation and parole officers who have worked with Fair in his role as an advocate and Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill.

In his letter, Underhill described Fair as a "community leader and passionate interrupter of gang violence." Underhill's office also contacted people affected by Fair's robbery crime, the letter said. All but one supported clemency for his 1992 conviction.

"If we are to believe in such things as pardons or second chances, they should be reserved for exceptional individuals such as Choo," Underhill told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Since assuming office in 2015, Brown has used her executive power to grant clemency to individuals sparingly. She pardoned three men on a single day in December 2016. Each had committed a minor crime more than 20 years ago and weren't in prison.

Last August, Brown commuted the sentence of Brandon Dixon, who was 17 when he pleaded guilty to a 2009 robbery spree in Clackamas County. Dixon had served over half of his 15-year sentence when the governor approved his clemency request.

Pardons erase convictions from criminal records, while commutations do not.

John Kitzhaber granted clemency to one person while governor. On his last day in office, Kitzhaber pardoned Sang Duo, who was serving 12 1/2 years for two Portland shootings.

By contrast, Ted Kulongoski granted clemency to 15 people during his last two years in office. He pardoned 13 and commuted the sentences of two.

Kulongoski granted clemency for crimes ranging from first-degree robbery to drug possession and distribution.

Brown's office has so far reviewed roughly 250 clemency applications during her tenure, said spokesman Bryan Hockaday.

Aliza Kaplan, who directs the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic at Lewis & Clark Law School and who served as Fair's lawyer on his petition, said she was thrilled by Brown's decision.

But Kaplan, who attended Monday's ceremony, also believes the governor should exercise her clemency power in more cases to address what she and other reform advocates say is a history of harsh prison sentences and racial disparities in Oregon's criminal justice system.

"Commutations for women with overly long and harsh sentences would be a good place to start," Kaplan said. Oregon's female prison population grew nearly 20 percent between 2012 and 2017 and is estimated to rise another 0.8 percent over the next 10 years, a recent report by the state's Office of Economic Analysis shows.

Fair, meanwhile, said he'll savor this small victory. "I think it's finally starting to hit me," he said. "I'm free. I'm finally free."

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 II @shanedkavanaugh