Robert Downey Jr. will get Christmas Eve pardon from Jerry Brown

Actor Robert Downey Jr.is among the 91 criminals California Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned on Thursday.

The pardon reads, “Robert John Downey Jr…. has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character and conducted himself as a law-abiding citizen”. He had been sent to prison when he was convicted of felony drug possession after he was arrested in Los Angeles for having heroin, cocaine and a pistol in his auto.

Downey was granted the pardon after proving he was rehabilitated.

Brown issued 105 pardons in 2014, and 127 pardons in 2013.

The pardons do not erase the criminal convictions.

Downey famously battled substance abuse and was arrested numerous times on drug-related charges from 1996 to 2001. He was nominated twice for Oscars, for both Chaplin (1992) and Tropic Thunder (2008).

The Democratic governor, a former Jesuit seminarian, has made it a practice to issue pardons around Christian holidays.

California’s pardons are granted to those people “who have demonstrated exemplary behavior following their conviction”, Brown’s office said.

The actor first faced legal problems regarding his drug use when Downey was stopped by the police for speeding on the Pacific Coast Highway in June 1996.

While the value of pardons is mainly symbolic, they can carry benefits like allowing recipients to serve on juries, own firearms or work as county probation officers or state parole agents.

All individuals pardoned Thursday completed their sentences and have been released from custody for more than a decade without committing a crime, according to a statement from the governor’s office.