Downey Jr. pardoned… 19 years after

Robert Downey Jr has been pardoned for the drugs and weapon offences for which he was convicted in the mid-1990s on Thursday.

California governor Jerry Brown signed the 50-year-old’s plea for pardon on evidence “that since his release from custody he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character and conducted himself as a law-abiding citizen”.

The then 31-year-old Downey Jr was arrested on narcotics charge in 1996, he passed out in a neighbour’s bedroom which he mistook for his apartment in Malibu.

From 1996 through 2001, he was arrested numerous times on drug-related charges including cocaine, heroin and marijuana and for concealing an unloaded 357 Magnum while driving under the influence.

“It’s like I’ve got a shotgun in my mouth with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal,” Downey explained to a judge in 1999 in one of his case hearing, claiming that he had been addicted to drugs since the age of eight.

The Iron Man franchise actor was subsequently incarcerated over the offences and later released in the year 2000.