Huckabee pardon of Maurice Clemmons

[Garfield1966]

I cannot help but wonder if this will not come back and bite him in the butt. I was going to cut Huckabee some slack until I read that he has commuted the sentences of over 1,000 inmates which is two times more than his three predecessors combined.

Article

There is no way to know what a person will do in the future. I would guess that the jails were probably over crowed and the parole board for what ever reason figured Clemmons was as good a candidate to release as any other. I would also suspect that Huckabee or any other governor for that matter is not going to read all the trial transcripts but rely on the recommendations of his staff and the parole board.

Regardless, it is his signature on the clemency and this SOB just killed 4 cops. I do not care for Huckabee's politics and I am somewhat undetermined as to he level of 'guilt' in this case but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

One thing I do find interesting is that FOX does not have squat on the issue while all the other news agencies do. Interesting for a"Fair and Balanced" news organization.

 

[delldude]

One thing I do find interesting is that FOX does not have squat on the issue while all the other news agencies do. Interesting for a"Fair and Balanced" news organization.

Funny.......you must have missed Bret Baier at 6 o'clock then.

So much for Fair and Balanced.........

 

[Garfield1966]

An O'Reilly Op-Ed piece does not qualify as a news piece. I used the search function on the Fox web site using the following search parameters "huckabee pardons clemmons".

This article comes up that mentions Huckabee in passing. None of the other articles that come up have a time stamp later than July of 2009.

Just saying.

Regardless of that, how much responsibility do you think he shares in this? I am still on the fence. This is not the first time it has happened, I think Clinton and Dukakis (Horton) both had one they released. I seem to remember that Dukakis was ripped a new one for doing basically the same thing that Huckabee just did nine years ago.

How much do you want to bet that it will be politics as usual. The right will defend Huckabee and the left will be on the attack. Same as last time but with the sides reversed. Damn I hate politics.

 

[ORDmech]

Shame on you Mike Huckabee for letting this piece of sh*t go free. Pres. of U.S.A? Yeah right!! Good luck with that!

Good job to the Seattle police department for taking care of D-bag!

Rest In Peace to the officers that this turd killed.

 

[SparrowHawk]

Mike Huckabee as Governor has within his power the ability to pardom whomever he choses with or without valid or any reason whatsoever.

 

[southwind]

From what I've read, Mike Hukabee commuted this guys sentence from 90+ years to 40+ years.

No, he did not open the cell for this piece of trash, the parole board did that all on their , years after Hukabee commuted his sentence !

Huckabee for Pres?

 

[delldude]

Actually, the whole system failed once again...Huck is wrong because the left needs his character assassinated for 2012.

If you need to vilify someone here.....look into the clown who reversed the DA's no bail request a few weeks ago for the rape of a twelve year old and let this clown, who thought the world is coming to an end and thought he was Jesus....

Bret Baier doesn't qualify either Gar??

 

[Garfield1966]

Yes he did open the door for Clemmons. I think you misunderstand what happened. Clemmons wrote a letter to the governor asking for clemency. The governor commuted Clemmons sentence from 108 years to 47 years. Given that Clemons had good behavior while in prison, he was eligibly for parole that very day. Since he had good behavior and the governor had just commuted his sentence, the parole board granted him parole. So had Huckebee not commuted his sentence, Clemmons would not have been eligible for parole till 2015.

You can argue either way whether he should have or should not have known what Clemmons was capable of. From the sounds of it, Huckabee gave a valid reason for commuting his sentence in that the sentence Clemmons was give was far longer than the sentences given to similar felons of similar crimes.

On a side note. I think we as a nation need to look hard at our prison system. I think an argument could be made that the prison system helped create Clemmons. Granted he was guilty of violent offenses but not of murder. Most things I have read argue that it is a pretty big leap from 'regular' crimes to murder. I cannot help but wonder if the violent jail system we have did not help harden Clemmons and help push him over that line. NO!!!!! I am not excusing his behavior. We are all responsible for our own actions BUT we are a product of our environment. I have always felt we need to have two separate jail systems. We need one for reform and one for punishment. The folks in the punishment system cannot be released back into the general public. The reform system needs to do just that. Set up the individuals with a job skill, education...etc. With out this, the recidivism rate will continue to be high and we will continue to have Clemmons in this world. As with other issues, we either pay a little up front or a lot at the back end.

Dell,

The Baire piece did not come up in the search. Not sure how to find it if the search engine does not provide a link to it.

As far as vilification, Huckabee did commute his sentence and make him eligible for parole. Do you not feel he is at the very least partially responsible? Would you like me to search out some videos or articles of Dukakis/Horton? Please. The press ripped him a new one or two. It's politics. Of course the opposition is going to take advantage of it. They would be stupid for not doing so if the goal is to win. Is it right? No, I don't think so. At least not in the disingenuous way it was done with Dukakis and the way it probably will be done with Huckabee. Both made a decision based on the info they had at the time. Hind sight is always 20/20. For anyone to claim that either one of these governors willfully and intentionally set free a murderer is ignorant and stupid in my opinion.

I suspect that this will be a big part of Huckabees campaign should he chose to run in 2012.

Having said that, I think it is legitimate to look at both decisions as well as other commutations to see if the guidelines are sound. Given that we do not see many stories like this on the news I tend to believe the process is pretty sound and that every now and then someone will slip through the cracks. Unfortunately this time the SOB took out 4 people.

 

[delldude]

It was on Fox's 'Special Report' which I think is a valid source. You have to watch it.

As far as fair and balanced.......try finding something on the GW email scam on msnbc or cbs....I found something by Ap at cbs....nothing from cbs,msnbc...why's that?

 

[Garfield1966]

Because the media is biased. My point is/was that FOX is not better/worse than the others.

 

[Garfield1966]

Looks like there might be a few other names that Huckabee is familiar with such as Wayne Dumond, Eugene Fields who happened to make a $10k donation to the RNC and additional gifts to the Baptit church and Salvation Army.

I am very curious to know if claims of religious 'saving' had any bearing on his decisions.

Looks like Huckabee will have a few issues to deal with if he decides to run. I would bet he will not be on the ballot in 2012.

 

[Garfield1966]

From what I've read, Mike Hukabee commuted this guys sentence from 90+ years to 40+ years.

No, he did not open the cell for this piece of trash, the parole board did that all on their , years after Hukabee commuted his sentence !

Huckabee for Pres?

Nothing?

 

[SparrowHawk]

I am so tired of how everytime we have a debate we get into "Media Bias"

The media is biased!

Biased towards RATINGS!

Fox target conservative talk show junkies.

CNN the more liberal types

And so it goes with each outlet competing for ratings. It has little if anything to do with good solid journalism of a bygone age, a time when Walter Cronkite could end his broadcast with "And that's the way it is" and have the statement be true.

When we get to the local news oft times it ends up being "If it bleeds, it leads" mentality that rules the airwaves. Print media is no better. The internet? A vast wasteland where fact checking is often a foreign concept.

I contend we no longer have news programing. Instead what we have is a giant electronic Op-Ed page often designed to obfuscate the truth instead of adding clarity.

 

[delldude]

Because the media is biased. My point is/was that FOX is not better/worse than the others.

Hmmmm.......their ratings say otherwise.

Its obvious the mainstream dances around stories where Fox reports.

Haven't heard jack on the climate emails at all on mainstream....Wonder why?

Its quite sad when Comedy Central reports on serious stories and little Katy looks the other way.

And now Obama wants to bail out newspapers...............I'm sure that will keep the bias in check.

 

[Garfield1966]

Not sure who that is obvious too. It has been my experience that any one who needs to tout some trait "I'm pretty" or "I'm smart" or I'm fair and balanced" tends not to be. I have seen countless articles and stories on all the main stream news outlets that were screwed up to say the least. Fox is no exception.