Back in 1988, Mark Wahlberg was just a 16-year-old troublemaker, and after trying to steal two cases of beer from Thanh Lam outside a Massachusetts convenience store, he beat the man with a 5-foot stick and screamed racial slurs at him. The attack left Lam blind in one eye, NECN reports. Wahlberg was convicted of assault and served 45 days, and now, more than 26 years later, he'd like the conviction erased from his record, the Boston Globe reports. "Since that time, I have dedicated myself to becoming a better person and citizen so that I can be a role model to my children and others," Wahlberg wrote in his application to the state's Board of Pardons.
"I have not engaged in philanthropic efforts in order to make people forget about my past," he continued, mentioning his own charity, as well as his support of the Dorchester Boys and Girls Clubs. "To the contrary, I want people to remember my past so that I can serve as an example of how lives can be turned around and how people can be redeemed. ... Receiving a pardon would be a formal recognition that I am not the same person that I was on the night of April 8, 1988. It would be formal recognition that someone like me can receive official public redemption if he devotes himself to personal improvement and a life of good works." He does note that a pardon would also allow him to get a concessionaire's license, which would help in terms of his Wahlburgers restaurant chain. (Wahlberg's latest good deed: He'll go bald for a cancer charity.)
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