I can't believe I am about to do this.Mike Huckabee, recent candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination, has been excoriated by the press, and the followers of a certain failed politician, for granting clemency to a man who recently killed four police officers in Seattle, Washington.
And it is bullshit.
Look I don't trust Mike Huckabee as far as I can throw him, and the way he seems to be packing back on those lost pounds, that is getting less far by the day. I don't watch his crappy program on Fox and if he were chosen as the Republican candidate in 2012, I would tear his ass up.
However he is NOT responsible for the deaths of these four police officers. He just isn't!
Here are the facts.
In 1990, Clemmons, then 18, was sentenced in Arkansas to 60 years in prison for burglary and theft of property, according to a news account in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Newspaper stories describe a series of disturbing incidents involving Clemmons while he was being tried in Arkansas on various charges.
During one trial, Clemmons was shackled in leg irons and seated next to a uniformed officer. The presiding judge ordered the extra security because he felt Clemmons had threatened him, court records show.
Another time, Clemmons hid a hinge in his sock, and was accused of intending to use it as a weapon. Yet another time, Clemmons took a lock from a holding cell, and threw it toward the bailiff. He missed and instead hit Clemmons' mother, who had come to bring him street clothes, according to records and published reports.
On another occasion, Clemmons had reached for a guard's pistol during transport to the courtroom.
When Clemmons received the 60-year sentence, he was already serving 48 years on five felony convictions and facing up to 95 more years on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property. Records from Clemmons' sentencing described him as 5-foot-7 and 108 pounds. The crimes were committed when he was 17.
Clemmons served 11 years before being released.
News accounts say Huckabee commuted Clemmons' sentence, citing Clemmons' young age at the time the crimes were committed.
But Clemmons remained on parole -- and soon after landed in trouble again. In March 2001, he was accused of violating his parole by committing aggravated robbery and theft, according to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
He was returned to prison on a parole violation. But in what appears to have been a mistake, Clemmons was not actually served with the arrest warrants until leaving prison three years later. As a result, Clemmons' attorney argued that the charges should be dismissed because too much time had passed. Prosecutors dropped the charges.
The guy committed those initial crimes when he was only 17. He had already served eleven years of a 108 year sentence, which was about to be expanded by another 95 years.
Then Governor Huckabee believed that the young man could be rehabilitated. He was wrong, and the guy committed aggravated robbery and got thrown right back into prison. Mike Huckabee could be blamed for the aggravated robbery and theft, that seems legitimate, but NOT for the murders that occurred after he left prison three years later.
There was no way for Huckabee to predict the future, and he demonstrated compassion and hope that this young man might be able to turn his life around. When our elected leaders stop feeling compassion that is when we should all be worried. (Hear that Sarah Palin?)
I would not support Mike Huckabee for dog catcher, but I also won't saddle him with blame that is not his. Which is unlike some of Palin's supporters who are taking unrestrained glee in this tragedy as you can witness for yourself at Progressive Alaska.
Of course it makes it that much harder to defend Huckabee when he releases a statement like this.
The senseless and savage execution of police officers in Washington State has saddened the nation, and early reports indicate that a person of interest is a repeat offender who once lived in Arkansas and was wanted on outstanding warrants here and Washington State.
The murder of any individual is profound tragedy, but the murder of a police officer is the worst of all murders in that it is an assault on every citizen and the laws we live within.
Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State. He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence from 1990, making him parole eligible and was paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time. He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him.
It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior but was not kept incarcerated by either state. This is a horrible and tragic event and if found and convicted the offender should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Our thoughts and prayers are and should be with the families of those honorable, brave, and heroic police officers.
When you make such a statement, which refuses to accept any responsibility and then points the finger of blame at law enforcement alone, it demonstrates the same kind of broken logic and lack of personal responsibility for which Sarah Palin has become famous. Are ALL Republicans morphing into some version of Caribou Barbie? I shudder at the thought.
Damn! No wonder the Republican party is crumbling apart. Do they have NO heroes left?
Update: Here is Huckabee's appearance on The Factor.
Well that gives us a little more information.
We can still decide, with hindsight, that Huckabee made a mistake, but at least it sounds like he is at least taking SOME responsibility for his decision.
Sorry for exposing you to O'Reilly. I can't stand that guy!
Sorry, Gryphen, at this point I disagree. From what I have read today, it seems that Huckabee pardoned this man because he learned that Clemmons had been "born again" in prison. We can wait and see what the truth is in the coming days, but from what I see now, Huckabee is culpable based strictly on this man becoming a "born-again Christian" when he was behind bars.
ReplyDeleteHuckabee let people go because they FOUND JESUS IN PRISON. Now, I am not a believer so I don't think this is a good reason to let someone go, since I don't believe Jesus exists and the law does not allow the Jesus defense.
ReplyDeleteHuckabee let another rapist go just so spite Bill Clinton, then he raped and killed two more.
Huckabee is a religious idiot and a corrupt man. And Jesus won't keep the weight off either.
Wow, your "defense" of Mike Huckabee is all over the map, Gryphen, literally.
ReplyDeleteOF COURSE he's not responsible for the deaths of the four Washington state cops, but he's COMPLICIT in their deaths -- same as Sarah Palin is complicit in the deaths of 277 undermonitored, undersupervised indigent and elderly and disabled folks in Alaska under state care during her 2-1/2 years' reign.
It's up to those of us who see this similiarity to point this out to the news outlets excoriating Huckabee. Yes, it DOES seem all Republicans are morphing into some version of stupid, self-serving Caribou Barbie.
I agree with you and appreciate your analysis of this tragic situation.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Gryphen, but I disagree with your premise that Huckabee has no share in the blame here. With his commutation of Clemmens sentence, this would not have happened. While Huckabee's good xtian heart may have been in the right place, his brain was not connected.
ReplyDeleteYes, there have been failures on the part of the courts in handling Clemmens cases, but none of this would even need to be discussed if this man had just remained in jail in Arkansas and NOT had his sentenced commuted.
Huckabee's failure to even accept any part of the responsibility for his part in releasing Clemmens is bogus. He is not responsible for Clemmons actions, true; but he is responsible for the fact that he is not in an Arkansas prison at this time - and therefore, holds some degree of culpability in the assassination of four good officers and the ensuing loss to their families and to the community at large.
1smartcanerican
Gryphen, your site seems to be having difficulties this morning - or maybe it is just me :) Only one story? Can't post comments?
ReplyDeleteThe problem I have with the Huckabee involvement, if what I have read is true, is that he favoured commuting the sentence of those prisoners who found The Lord and professed to be Christian. Like that somehow absolved them of their past crimes, no matter how horrid.
ReplyDeleteTeenagers should not be put in adult prisons. If they have any chance of being rehabilitated being treated brutally by adult prisoners and guards often destroys it. One story I read stated he thought he was Jesus during one of his strange episodes. He has tried to go after people in authority in the past which could mean he is paranoid. He clearly has a mental health problem. He probably needed to be on medication and monitored closely which Washington State is usually pretty good at doing. He had been charged with several felonies and was facing more time in prison, and that may have set off his paranoia. He may have started using street drugs which could make him much worse which could no have been predicted by anyone, except that many people do use drugs post-prison because they have PTSD or other issues from the experience. Many people are in prison unjustly through errors and intentional abuses. When trying to reverse these mistakes errors may be made and people will not be the same when they come out of prison as they were when they went in.
ReplyDeleteThis incident is not any one person's fault it is due to a system that is broken and Huckabee may have just gotten screwed for trying to do the right thing. That is very sad.
Totally O/T:
ReplyDeleteYou can send our troops a free card, thanks to Xerox...
http://letssaythanks.com/ThankYou.aspx
You should note that the statement on the Huck Pac site is from the Press Team and not Huckabee himself. I have no idea why this is or why he hasn't released a statement himself but I am guessing we will know tonight during the O'Reilly Factor.
ReplyDeleteLeah Burton at God's Own Party discusses how Huckabee's criteria for selecting those to be exonerated was based on their religious beliefs. If that is how he made his decisions it is crazy, but that was only one decison in the process. WA state had just released him and I am sure they had his full history before they did that. It would be interesting to know just what kind of thinking was behind his actions and if it had anything to do with Right wing paranoid statements by some of their leaders.
ReplyDeleteHuckabee may not be "personally responsible" for this crime, but this is at least the second time that a criminal he helped parole has committed a heinous crime.
ReplyDeleteThe Wayne Dumond case is rife with Huckabee's involvement in getting a criminal, who really shouldn't have been released, released.
The state official who advised Huckabee on the Dumond case confirmed that the governor knew very little about Ashley Stevens’ case:
“I don’t believe that he had access to, or read, the law enforcement records or parole commission’s files — even by then,” the official said. “He already seemed to have made up his mind, and his knowledge of the case appeared to be limited to a large degree as to what people had told him, what Jay Cole had told him, and what he had read in the New York Post.”
Jay Cole, like Huckabee, is a Baptist minister, pastor for the Mission Fellowship Bible Church in Fayetteville and a close friend of the governor and his wife. On the ultra-conservative radio program he hosts, Cole has championed the cause of Wayne Dumond for more than a decade.
Cole has repeatedly claimed that Dumond’s various travails are the result of Ashley Stevens’ distant relationship to Bill Clinton.
The governor was also apparently relying on information he got from Steve Dunleavy, first as a correspondent for the tabloid television show “A Current Affair” and later as a columnist for the New York Post.
Much of what Dunleavy has written about the Dumond saga has been either unverified or is demonstrably untrue. Dunleavy has all but accused Ashley Stevens of having fabricated her rape, derisively referring to her in one column as a “so-called victim,” and brusquely asserting in another, “That rape never happened.”
The columnist wrote that Dumond was a “Vietnam veteran with no record” when in fact he did have a criminal record. He claimed there existed DNA evidence by “one of the most respected DNA experts in the country” to exonerate Dumond, even though there was no such evidence. He wrote that Bill Clinton had personally intervened to keep Dumond in prison, even though Clinton had recused himself in 1990 from any involvement in the case because of his distant relationship with Stevens.
“The problem with the governor is that he listens to Jay Cole and reads Steve Dunleavy and believes them ... without doing other substantative work,” the state official said.
You can read the full article here.
Gryphen, the statement just repeats what you had explained happened.....i missed what Huckabee should have said.
ReplyDelete2 words: Michael Dukakis.
ReplyDeleteHuckabee has a loooooooooong history of issuing pardon's & clemency.
ReplyDelete****************
The one-time Republican presidential contender granted twice as many pardons and commutations as the previous three governors of Arkansas combined, The Associated Press reported in 2007.
In all, he issued 1,033 pardons and commutations during more than 10 years as governor — an average of about one every four days.
...
Huckabee's clemencies became a campaign issue when he ran for the Republican presidential nomination last year. He was criticized by prosecutors and political rivals for releasing prisoners who went on to commit more crimes.
"It's a crying shame that a sitting governor would be so insensitive to victims' rights," Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley told an Arkansas newspaper, The Leader, in 2004.
In one high-profile case, castrated rapist Wayne DuMond was set free by the Arkansas parole board at Huckabee's urging, according to news accounts. DuMond later suffocated a mother of three in Missouri and was sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2005.
A Southern Baptist preacher, Huckabee sometimes was motivated to release prisoners at the urging of pastors or other acquaintances, according to news accounts.
His clemencies also benefitted the stepson of a staff member, and even Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who received a pardon for a 1975 traffic offense. Huckabee, who sometimes jammed on the bass guitar with his band at campaign events, pardoned Richards after meeting him at a concert.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010386690_huckabee30m.html?prmid=obinsite
As the sister of a mentally ill woman and as a Christian myself, I understand what some are trying to say. But until our mental health system and prison system services are better integrated to properly respond to those prisoners who are clinically disturbed, however, it is necessary to keep the public safe from harm in whatever way necessary. The idea that aggravated robbery (when he was a fully grown man) was not so egregious, is simply a bizarre contention, though I have every sympathy for issues such as poverty and substance abuse which may have led to these offenses. It sounds like this young man was vulnerable to mental instability more than anything, even before he was sent to prison in the first place. It is unfortunately the case that prison probably created further, irreversible scars. Even so, it is unacceptable to be so naive and so doctrinaire that one thinks a "born again" status wipes away mental illness, or prior criminal behavior. People like Mr. Huckabee are trying to play God, as some have already stated. (Just as some of these same people would condemn criminals to death, which I don't believe in, either.) This is human vanity, nothing else, or perhaps a strange way of trying to score points and "collect souls" for God. As everyone agrees, it is tragic for all who are involved. My deepest sympathies go out to the families of the officers.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't agree with you.
ReplyDeletePlease read the blog, God's Own Party listed on your blog page.
It gives more detailed info and very informative.
The republicans blamed Dukakis when he was running for Willie Horton and if they allow Huckabee to get out of this af 2 of his pardonees have now committed murder.
If we say that the rhetoric of Glenn beck and Hannity and others to incite violence towards Obama and O'Reilly contributed to the murder of Dr. Tillmann, then Huckabee signed the dotted line and let 2 killers go free.
How many more are there out there that he let go free?
Sorry Gryphen, don't agree with you. The big deal with "born again to Christ" is that it seems to forgive you all your sins--even ones in the future. Been there, saw it. It kind of freaked me out.
ReplyDeleteWe tend to give the age factor as a legitimate reason to not incarcerate people, but a person does not suddenly "go bad" overnight when he turns 18, 19, or 20. His behavior is founded in his previous 17 or so years.
Unfortunately, just because someone finds Jesus, does not mean they are totally "cured" or exonerated of their criminal behavior.
Manson's young girls are still in prison, as one example.
It sounds like this guy is a repeat criminal and should have been kept behind bars.
Many criminals have converted to Islam while in prison. How many of them have been pardoned by their Governor after doing so? I'll bet I can guess. Apparently, Christianity is the only religion that can save people in this country. How's that for separation of Church and State?
ReplyDeleteHuckelberry is just suffering the What Goes Around syndrome.
ReplyDeleteThe Repugs made a big deal of a Dukacus pardon for Willie Horton, though they ignored a similar Bush number one issue.
So how can they ignore the same issue now?
Ask Rove, I am sure he can come up with some two faced rationale.
If Repugs, Taliban, Teabaggers, and Palinistas want to attack each other with the distortions they normally use against Dims, more power to them.
to anon @ 2:32
ReplyDeleteHuckabee doesn't believe in separation of church and state. Wikipedia has quoted him as saying
"....when people say, 'We ought to separate politics from religion,' I say to separate the two is absolutely impossible." (Huckabee, Mike (1997). Character Is The Issue. Nashville: Broadman & Holman. p. 98.)
First time ever I've disagreed with your opinion. Huckabee apparently did not exercise sound judgment on this matter. He let his own bias towards religious conversion sway him. Had he not granted clemancy, this man would not have been allowed to seek parole. From everything I've read, he was unable to manage his anger from the get-go and was a loose cannon. Being 17 is no "home free" card nor should it be. We try young people all the time as adults after a mental and emotional evaluation is done. Sometimes the crimes are so heinous, the young person so deviant, or his/her criminal history so extensive that it signals to authorities that this person is beyond rehabilitation.
ReplyDeleteWhat better way to get out than to be told that the governor is a born-again Christian who is eager to extend the benefit of a doubt to a con? To believe that he would not be so counseled or pick up that info in prison is naive. The kid played the system. How dare I conclude that? Well, look at his behavior once out. He played the governor. That speaks ill of the governor. No one who is so easily played should be able to exert that kind of power - to free dangerous convicts.
Age should be only one factor when considering sentences or releases. Religioius conversion is nice, but it is not a true indicator of rehabilitation. After all, how many murders have been committed in the name of religion - any religion? Huckabee was and still is a fool.
How the Republican like Huckabee can expect to escape blame for releasing dangerous people after condemning Dukakis is beyond me. That Huckabee released him primary because the man claimed to be "born again" is truly much worse.
I don't agree with your take on this particular issue. Yes, he's not directly responsible, but he's played a big role in letting this guy go in the first plac.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand trying to be fair about it, but this man has a track record of letting his religious beliefs cloud his judgement.
The article "House of Brat" quoted above is a very interesting read.
Thanks for all of the comments.
ReplyDeleteFor the record I certainly DO think that Huckabee's presidential aspirations are toast.
I DON'T think releasing a prisoner due to religious conversion is appropriate.
I think that Huckabee's official statement is beyond weak.
And I still don't believe he should be blamed for the death's of the four officers.
However do not feel badly if you do not agree with me, it is bound to happen from time to time. I gave my opinion and you gave yours. That is an open and respectful dialog that helps to clarify a complicated issue. Which is a good thing.
Oh please, Huckabee isn't taking any responsibility. He and O'Reilly are scapegoating the Washington judges.
ReplyDeleteHuckabee has a clear pattern of allowing people to be released that should NOT be released:
Surely the most notorious instance of misplaced mercy involved Wayne Dumond, a rapist and murdered now deceased, who was originally sent to prison in Arkansas for raping a distant cousin of Bill Clinton. During Clinton's presidency the Dumond case became an obsession among certain right-wing pundits and politicians, who insisted that Dumond had been framed and brutalized by the "Clinton machine." When Huckabee became governor, he supported a parole for Dumond, winning applause from the Republican right -- until the former prisoner raped and killed a young woman in Missouri. Dumond later died in prison, under suspicion that he had murdered at least one other woman after his Arkansas release -- a tragic outcome for which Huckabee has repeatedly tried to blame others, including his two Democratic predecessors in the statehouse.
The real engine behind Dumond's release, however, was a Baptist minister and ultra-conservative ideologue named Jay Cole, who also happened to be a friend of Huckabee. Cole would tell the governor about his visits with the supposedly innocent Dumond, when the minister and the prisoner would read the Bible and pray together.
Perhaps the worst instance of that same syndrome, chronicled in detail by Arkansas journalists, concerned an Air Force sergeant named Glen Green, who was sentenced to prison for life after confessing that he had raped and killed a teenage girl. After beating the woman with nunchucks, he violated her almost lifeless body, ran over her with his car and buried her in a swamp. But yet another preacher friend of Huckabee's named Rev. Johnny Jackson somehow persuaded the governor that this incredibly brutal killing had been an "accident" -- and that Green had repented, come to Jesus and therefore should be freed.
Two years ago, I noted that Huckabee knew almost nothing about the Green case beyond what his preacher pal had told him. He consulted neither the prosecutor nor the victim's family, and overruled the dissent of his own parole board. After he announced that Green would be released, the furious public reaction forced him to reverse the decision. Yet he continued to release murderers and other violent criminals despite angry dissent from local prosecutors.
Huckabee granted mercy to prisoners whom he chanced to meet, to prisoners who had personal connections to him or his family, and especially to prisoners who were vouchsafed to him by the pastors he had befriended during his years as a Baptist minister and denominational leader. Among the thugs who benefited from his mercy was a robber who beat an old man to death with a lead pipe.
It's a clear pattern by Huckabee, not an accidental "mistake."
Bush Sr. and Rodger Alies played dirty politics when he aired the Willie Horton ads and now it's time to pay the price. (Dukakis didn't commute Horton sentence, Horton was on a work furlough) He didn't even sign the work furlough into law it was a Republican Francis Sargent. Under Sargent first degree murderers weren't allowed to be on furlough. After the Massachusetts Supreme Court found that first degree murders have the right to furlough the Massachusetts legislature made a bill that would exempt them. Dukakis didn't sign the bill into law so Horton went on weekend furloughs.(He did not kill anyone while he was out, sure he repeatedly raped a lady and that is a terrible thing but he didn't kill four cops.) This is quite different than letting two so called born again go free and to have them murder someone. I'm tired of the different standards that the republicans play all the time. We can slam you for letting someone out of jail and they commit a crime but don't blame us if we let someone out and they do something much worse. I was very young when the 88 election happened but I still remember the vicious ad, I also think that there was a little bit of hidden racism in the ads.
ReplyDeleteI think those of you in Alaska should start a petition for your governor to pardon Sherri Johnston. Hell, if Arkansas can pardon rapists and murderers, seems like Alaska could pardon a one-time drug seller.
ReplyDeleteLet's see what the current "SP" governor would do with THAT one.
Tell it to the spouses and kids of the four officers who would be aliove today if Huckabee had kept his nose out of where it didn't belong.
ReplyDeleteTell it to the young women who were raped by the other pirsoner Huckabee let go.
Sorry, Gryph, while Huckabee did not pull the trigger or drop his drawers, he ENABLED others to do so by his misguided religious beliefs.
Obviously these men LIED to get out of prison. It happens all the time. Everyone tries to get out of their punishment and rarely will they let a choice opportunity like what went on in Arkansas go.