Pardoned by POTUS: Is Larry Hoover Finally Getting Out of Jail? Details on His Commutation

The Breakdown: Larry Hoover’s name is regarded as a synonym for street credibility and legacy. Even being behind bars couldn’t stop him from running one of the country’s most infamous gangs. With a pardon from Trump, folks are now wondering if he’ll be out.

“I think I’m Big Meech, Larry Hoover,” is still one of the most quoted rap bars of our time. Chicago legend Larry Hoover has been locked up since the 1970s. He’s been in prison on RICO charges for over 50 years, but that changed at the end of May. Alongside Louisiana rapper NBA Youngboy and Death Row Records co-founder Michael Harris, the gang leader was included in President Trump’s clemency grants.

In short, no, Larry Hoover will not be released from jail in 2025 with the President’s pardons. The Gangster Disciples legend will still have to live out two life sentences after President Trump went on his clemency run. The release of the former gang leader has long been called for, but it won’t come anytime soon.

Hoover has been incarcerated at Colorado’s federal supermax since 1997, and in prison since his 1973 guilty verdict. While in Illinois’ state prisons from 1973-1997, he still orchestrated operations for the Gangster Disciples, which led to his extensive sentence of over 600 years.

According to the BBC, he’s since let go of his gang affiliations and gang-related actions. In 2022, Hoover also wrote a letter in regards to his clemency requests. In the letter, he states, “I am no longer a member, leader, or even an elder statesman of the Gangster Disciples. I want nothing to do with it now and forever.”

While Larry Hoover has renounced his association with the Gangster Disciples, he’s still seen as a pivotal figure in the organization’s development, popularization, and legacy. Not only was he a leader of the gang, but he was also a founder.

In the late 1960s, Larry clashed with David Barksdale’s Devil’s Disciples while running the Supreme Gangsters. Both groups began as protection agencies for neighborhoods, but soon turned into gangs. After the violence, the two agreed to a truce and co-founded the Chicago-native Black Gangster Disciple Nation (BGDN).

Although Larry was only about 16 years old when he founded the Supreme Gangsters, he was in familiar territory. He had led street gangs since around 13 years old; so when Barksdale died from kidney complications, he naturally fell into place as the Black Gangster Disciple Nation’s lone leader. He became known as “The Chairman” of the gang and turned it into a real organization.

Larry established the Black Gangster Disciple Nation's structure, including codes, titles, and a constitution. It went on to become one of today’s most prominent and infamous criminal organizations in the U.S., despite tensions within the group that led to the split into Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples in the early 1980s.

Even after being convicted in 1973, Larry went on to continue leading the Gangster Disciples from behind bars. The organization quickly became the leading gang in the Midwest, and he was given six life sentences in 1997 after a wiretap investigation. Trump removed those six sentences from Larry’s record in late May 2025.

With pleas from Kanye West and Larry Hoover Jr., the President was expecting to pardon the street legend completely, but was roadblocked. While the President of the United States can pardon any federal offense, they cannot pardon state-level sentences.

This balance of power allowed Trump to commute most of Larry Hoover’s time, but he was unable to commute the final two life sentences. Those two sentences are specific to the state of Illinois. Larry was charged in 1973 with ordering the murder of William “Pooky” Young, and the state gave him a sentence of 150-200 years.

Larry can only escape this sentence and be freed from Illinois’ prison system if his lawyers can convince a state judge to commute them. While calling for the commutation of his last two life sentences, attorneys Joshua Dubin and Justin More said, “There is no purpose in returning a 74-year-old man in failing health to prison after 52 years of incarceration… Mr. Hoover has now received… commutation for his federal drug convictions. The Governor of Illinois must follow suit,” (per NBC News).