As a police manhunt continues for Maurice Clemmons, suspected in the execution of four Lakewood, WA police officers this weekend, Mike Huckabee is trying to dodge blame for his decision to commute the sentence of Clemmons while Governor of Arkansas in 2000. Huckabee called it a failure of the justice system. I call it a failure of the Governor. Clemmons had served a mere 11 years of his 95 year sentence for multiple felonies when Huckabee commuted his sentence (Clemmons was ultimately granted parole following the commutation). This wasn’t the case of someone who had made one or two mistakes and had learned from them, or who was the victim of unfortuante circumstances. This was a clearly dangerous individual whose sentence was reduced despite the strenous objections of prosecuters. This was an absolutel failure in judgement, compounded by the fact that Huckabee is seeking to lay the blame solely on the shoulders of the justice system of Arkansas and Washington, despite his starring role in this tragedy.
Was there a failure of the justice system in each state allowing this dangerous repeat offender to be free? Probably.
Is it Huckabees fault that Clemmons “allegedly” pulled the trigger in the shootings? No.
Did he demonstrate incredible lack of judgement in the commutation and his response after the fact today? Absolutely.
Congratulations Mike, you’ve succeeded in making me think there is a worse possible Presidential candidate than Sarah Palin.
Hopefully this will end any talk of his becoming the Republican nominee in 2012.
I can see the counter ad now: “I’m Mike Huckabee, and I approved this scumbags release”
Yes, this is true, but the guy had gotten 90+ years for a few robberies that he committed when he was 17 years old – no injuries or violence. At the time, Huckabee was probably right to think it was a miscarriage of justice. This is a 20/20 hindsight thing. I don’t think you would have disagreed with Huckabee at the time that he did it. But it will still bite him in the ass.
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/11/huckabee-in-for-some-trouble.php
To be honest, despite the fact that I probably wouldn’t vote for Huckabee for dog catcher, I can’t fault Huckabee for this based on anything I’ve heard.
And to be honest if this were a Democrat I think you’d be saying the same thing David.
No pthread I wouldn’t. This has nothing to do with his party and everything to do with his decision making. Based on this guys history, based on the things he did and the statements of those involved with the case, he should have stayed in prison a lot longer.
David, I have to disagree here. If Huckabee had granted clemency to a guy who had been convicted as a juvinile of bulgary, I can’t see much wrong with that. Espicially since he was still on parole when he left, and should have been sent back to jail many times between his release and now.
Now I do think that, given the circumstances, perhaps a reduced sentence would be in order rather then outright clemency. Plus, I do think that Huckabee should have listened to his prosecutors, who were advising him against this. Heck, I can even see a credible argument that this shows he shouldn’t be president.
But hind sight is 20-20. Mercy is a good quality to have, lets not judge Huckabee too much for it. Espicially since there were many, many times between Clemmons release and his crime for him to be prosecuted.
Brendan, if it had been one instance, sure clemency might make sense, but it was far more than that. He’d been carrying a loaded pistol on school grounds. He assaulted one officer and threatened a judge. He attempted to grab a gaurds pistol while being transported to court. One of his felonies included breaking into a state troopers home and stealing, among other things, yet another gun.
Absolutely there were problems after Clemmons release that also contributed, but Huckabees attempt to avoid his share of the blame on top of his original decision to reduce Clemmons sentence making him immediately eligible for parole was the first in any series of failures that occured.
Sorry it wasn’t Brendan, it was B Minich. I saw the B and was too lazy to read the rest 🙂
Count me with pthread on this one (gulp!) — wouldn’t vote for Huckabee nor fault him for this.
David: no problem on the name. Brendan and Brandon are seperates by two small vowels. I’ve had people who know me personally call me Brendan.
In the last several months, the polity’s twice been a-twitter with governor commutations or lack thereof. In September, the New Yorker reported on the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was empirically not-provably-guilty of the fire deaths of his daughters, though this didn’t result in Governor Perry stopping his execution.
Now we get the Huckster commuting the sentence of this dude. Like the majority of you, I am outraged at the execution of Willingham and at the clemency for Clemmons. But as the ashes of Huckabee’s political career smolder, its worth remembering that there is a causal link between the two: the Clemmons disaster makes it less likely for a future Willingham to receive justice.
FWIW.
I think there is a bit of a failure of rationality here. The question is not necessarily this one commutation. But a balance of them. Of the people Huck gave clemency what is the recidivism rate? And how does that rate compare to other officials with the authority to grant clemency?
What were the facts that Huck was presented with when he made his decision? What is the rate of recidivism in these kinds of cases?
The facts of the original case presented seem to suggest a sentence that far out weighs the crimes. Even though said crimes were quite serious. And if I recall at the time Arkansas had serious issues with their prison system such that commuting this sentence might well have helped keep a more serious offender in jail.
There are a lot of factors that play into this kind of decision and the reality is the results given the facts were not really forceable.
dcl, it is not simply that I think Huckabee made the wrong initial decision, but that he alos initially attempted to shift blame to everyone but himself that is indicative of his failure in this matter.