Mark Wahlberg wants formal recognition from the government that he's now a Serious Movie Star and not just a beer-stealing eye-stabber.

This week Wahlberg filed a formal petition seeking a pardon for his 1988 arrest that left one man permanently blinded in one eye. Via NECN:

In his petition, he outlines the incidents that led to his arrest, saying that he attempted to steal two cases of alcohol from a man who was standing outside of a convenience store near his home around 9 p.m. He said he hit the man on the head with a wooden stick, and then ran down the block to evade police. While attempting to avoid police, he said he punched another man in the face.

"I was detained by police a few minutes after that," Wahlberg wrote. "While I was detained, the police discovered that I had a small amount of marijuana in my back pocket. During the incident, I was under the influence of alcohol and narcotics."

Wahlberg, who was 16, was tried as an adult and spent three months in prison. (The Boston Globe also notes a 1986 incident where Wahlberg, then 14, and two friends followed two black schoolgirls on a field trip, yelled racial slurs and threw rocks at them. The civil complaint against Wahlberg and his friends was dismissed a year later.)

In his petition, Wahlberg claims he's been foreclosed from obtaining a concessionaire license and working with law enforcement to help at-risk children because of his criminal record.

But more importantly, Wahlberg hints, is that he'd like to win an Oscar.

"The more complex answer is that 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," Wahlberg wrote in the petition. "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."

[image via AP]