print“Like Michael Dukakis, former presidential candidate and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee waded into the moral miasma of penal abolition. Dukakis, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988, fought to secure a prison furlough for convicted murderer Willie Horton. Horton went on to assault a Massachusetts man and rape his fiancée during his recreational weekend off.
Wayne Dumond, the recipient of Huckabee’s helping hand, raped and murdered a Missouri woman. When asked about his difficult-to-defend role ‘in an apparently illegal and unrecorded closed-door meeting with the parole board lobbying on behalf of a rapist,’ Huckabee has offered a thesaurus of excuses.” [From “Huck’s For Huck—Paul’s For America”]
It transpires that the darling of so many evangelicals may have had a hand in releasing another habitual offender suspected of gunning down 4 cops in Washington State. With the Huckster as its liberal lodestar, WA did its bit to ensure Clemmons remained a man-about-town.
Reports the AP:
A man with an extensive criminal past — including a lengthy prison sentence commuted by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee nearly a decade ago — was being sought Sunday in a deadly ambush on four police officers who were gunned down inside a coffee shop.
…
Clemmons has an extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas, including aggravated robbery and theft, the sheriff’s office said. He also recently was arrested and charged in Washington state for assaulting a police officer, and second-degree rape of a child. Using a bail bondsman, he posted $150,000 and was released from jail last week.
Update I (Nov. 30): WND.COM:
“Mike Huckabee… granted 1,033 pardons and commutations, including 12 convicted murderers,’ … Huckabee granted more clemencies than the previous three governors combined.”
To repeat what I said above about Washington State’s excuse for law enforcement: “[I]t’s true that several authorities neglected to keep the repeat offender behind bars, recent headlines have been quick to point out that were it not for the clemency Huckabee granted in 2000, Clemmons would still be serving a 95-year sentence.”
Update II (Dec. 1): Michelle Malkin excerpts the Seattle Times, in addition to excoriating the Huckster and exposing his unforgivable record, something her conservative buddies can’t bring themselves to do:
Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors.
“This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time,” Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ Pulaski County said Sunday night when informed that Clemmons was being sought in connection to the killings.
Clemmons’ criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.
Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child.
He was released from custody just six days ago, even though he was wanted on a fugitive warrant out of Arkansas and was staring at eight felony charges in all out of Washington state.
Clemmons posted $15,000 with a Chehalis company called Jail Sucks Bail Bonds. The bondsman, in turn, put up $150,000, securing Clemmons’ release on the pending child-rape charge.
Clemmons lives in Tacoma, where he has run a landscaping and power-washing business out of his house, according to a police interview with his wife earlier this year.
He was married, but the relationship was tumultuous, with accounts of his unpredictable behavior leading to at least two confrontations with police earlier this year.
During the confrontation in May, Clemmons punched a sheriff’s deputy in the face, according to court records. As part of that incident, he was charged with seven counts of assault and malicious mischief.
In another instance, Clemmons was accused of gathering his wife and young relatives around at 3 or 4 in the morning and having them all undress.
Read all the Huckster’s excuse making.
The Huckster’s folksy low rent TV show suddenly looks a lot less charming.
In what sense is Huck a conservative, aside from being a Christian and against abortion?
Enough of this pacifist Woodstock Christianity.
Can we go back to the faith of Charles Martel now, please?
Maurice Clemons was a young lad of 17 when he was sentenced to “cruel and unusual punishment” of 95 years. Like our Supreme Court, Yeehaw Huck had more compassion for poor little Maurice than for his victims.
A wonderful friend named Wanda Starnes was brutalized, tortured, and murdered by a 17 year old punk for her new pickup truck. The ghastly details of the crime are in the Appendix of an earlier op-ed on the differences between Washington DC “pseudocrime” and real crime:
http://lpva.com/Archives/Editorial/Pauli/20050307.shtml
Some of the other misguided “boys” whom our compassionate fellow citizens want paroled and out on the streets to give a “South African” flavor to the USA:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1355089/posts
Some very moral people cannot fathom that the Dr. Jekyll who is a priest, Moslem, philanthropist, Orthodox Jew, or tearful self-pitying “boy” and also be Mr. Hyde. Well, for anyone looking for a penpal can write Kenneth Jeremy Laird who is awaiting his release:
http://www.ccadp.org/kennethlaird.htm
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/scam.htm
Government that should SECURE OUR RIGHTS fails in its duties when it disarms us while releasing predators into the community.
Huck, like Sarah, is a pious person with a few good ideas mixed in with a hodgepodge stew of ambition and neoconservatism.
This just in – not only are some criminals beyond redemption but so apparently is the Republican Party.
See:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_113009.html?...
(ASKED OF a sample of REPUBLICANS) If the 2012 Republican presidential primary or caucus in your state were being held today, for whom would you vote?
11/23/09
Sarah Palin 17
Mike Huckabee 10
Mitt Romney 9
John McCain 7
Newt Gingrich 2
… everyone else at 1 or less …
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD. Proverbs 17:15
Christians, read the Old Testament (Torah)!
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 (New American Standard Bible)
This man better not look to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. When he came on the scene, he creeped me out. His hokey demeanor is all smoke and mirrors. Huckabee has blood on his hands. If this is the best the Republican party has to offer, they are in serious trouble.
Myron, somehow I doubt that Huckabee’s motive for releasing this dirtbag was “compassion.” From what I read, it was a closed door meeting, in which the release was agreed to. Ambitious people like Huckabee (you’re correct) want their “compassion” publicized.
Van Wijk–great idea.
Huck the Cluck (like most politicians) talks a good game, but when you examine there record or deeds,they fall woefully short.
Penal abolition? Well maybe, but whatever govenor Huckabee’s actual motives for clemancy some ten years ago were; one thing is certain. I’m confident without research that the accused Mr Dumond was no doubt a marijuana and crack addled miscreant. That Ms. Mercer and her ilk would unleash on society through their convenient and misguided politics and philosophy more of the same is beyond ironic. Democracy, let alone Libertarianism, requires a majority, moral people; we lost that a long time ago – if we ever had it. It’s so hip to be naieve these days.
[Here is an easy introduction to my book. I offer it up, b/c I am sure you know very little about my “philosophy.” It’s hard to see what a reasonable person of the Right would dispute here—unless he or she “disputes” reality itself.–IM]
I fail to understand M.P. O’Neal’s comment “I’m confident without research that the accused Mr Dumond was no doubt a marijuana and crack addled miscreant.” First because there is no excuse for the statement “without research” I simply cut and pasted DuMond’s name into the little window on top of the page. Came up with- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_DuMond- I found that DuMond had numerous arrests for violent offenses but not one drug charge. The man was a menace to society almost all his life, rape and murder were his drugs of choice and was released because ‘Huck’ wanted to help his friend a radio preacher according to wiki. The “marijuana and crack addled miscreant” comment that Ms. Mercer and her ilk would unleash on society” is too “Age of the Idiots” for a reader on this post to reply to.
You’re known by the company you keep. And Huckabee, an alleged Christian, consorts with bigots. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11335
And Huckabee consorts with the meddling Mexicans, too. http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58455
He’s a self-aggrandizing buffoon.
And now an accessory to mass murder.
It seems to me that Huckabee wants to hype his status as a “compassionate christian” by showing mercy to villains.
While I recognize that some criminals can be reformed, many (dare I say most) of them cannot. It is naive to think that the purpose of the penal system is to improve the character of its inmates; its purpose is to separate them from society and to punish them. Today we treat criminality as a disease to be cured rather than an evil to be punished.
Furthermore, I’m no theologian, but when criminals find God, repent, and truly reform themselves, it is an act of their own will. God cannot help a wicked man unwilling to receive his help. Letting them out and hoping for divine intervention is seriously misguided.
While I recognize that some criminals can be reformed, many (dare I say most) of them cannot.
Is it the purpose of the criminal justice system to reform criminals, or to protect society?
In my view, a criminal can receive forgiveness from two entities: the victim and his deity, and neither should influence the sentence. Society has absolutely no business forgiving murder, rape, assault, etc.
An upcoming DISASTER is that a certain Middle Eastern entity is contemplating releasing hundreds of Maurice Clemonses to the morally inverted land of Hamas-Fatah-istan. I am referring to Israel’s effort to trade to get Sgt. Gilad Shalit back from Hamas. The issue is whether hundreds of Jews should be murdered (in the future) by the released thugs as a price for the freedom of Sgt. Shalit. If that is a reasonable trade, then why was there a Sgt. Shalit in the first place? After all, he was captured while trying to stop Palestinian mortar attacks on his fellow Israelis. To then release a thousand potential butchers (and let us say that 900 go to drive taxis or sell falafel while the other 100 go back to mortars, booby traps, and suicide bombs) makes a mockery of the whole concept of having an Israeli Defense Force. It would be a Kilo-Huck of a misguided “compassion” disaster.
Would I say what I just said to Sgt. Shalit’s parents? YES. Rather one unpleasant conversation than 100 unpleasant conversations with the parents of future victims.
There is a difference between commute and clemency.