Clemency Awarded To Rapist and Cop Killer

Posted By Travis Gearhart at 12:08 am on December 2, 2009

story_huckabee_gi Early Tuesday morning, Maurice Clemmons, 37, was shot and killed by Seattle Police. Clemmons was the subject of a two day manhunt, with accusations that he had shot and killed four police officers. Then Governor Mike Huckabee had granted clemency to Clemmons in May of 2000, after it was suggested by advisers that Clemmons was deserving. Clemmons was serving 108 years after being tried as an adult when he was 16 for robbery and burglary.

Now, when I first read that, I thought “Well, I could see that, clemency might have been the right thing to do”, however when you take into account his extremely violent behavior while in prison, which is well documented, that makes you think: what the hell was Huck thinking? On top of the Clemmons disaster, there was also the clemency granted to convicted rapist Wayne DuMond, who was later convicted of raping and murdering a woman in Missouri.

And this is where the question of whether or not he allowed his religious beliefs to interfere with his job comes into play. Both of these men supposedly “found God” in jail (doesn’t everybody?), and there are some who believe that Huck looked past his better judgment and allowed the preacher inside of him to “forgive them of their sins”. Granted, this is all speculation, but what better reason is there for granting clemency to these two before mentioned scum bags? A rapist and a cop killer. These two men were put in jail for a reason and should have stayed in jail.

To Mike Huckabee’s credit, he has said that he “accepts full responsibility”.

However, just what does that entail? He doesn’t hold a political position! What responsibility, besides having to live with the fact that he was the cause of a rape and 4 police officer murders, does he have to live with? Is he going to pay the family for his mistakes, for his lack of oversight? Is he going to personally go to the homes of the slain policemen and apologize? Highly unlikely, but if he does, at least that’s something. No matter how much Huckabee feels sorry for what he has done, no matter how much of the blame he takes, people got hurt because of his decisions. Which brings me to my closing points.

Pardoning and clemency, while in theory sound happy and cheerful and just chock FULL of warm fuzzy feelings for the families of rapists and thieves, should NOT be used unless THE UTMOST PRECAUTIONS are met. Here’s a quote from Huck: “Between 1,000 and 2,000 requests for some form of clemency came to my desk each and every one of the 10½ years I was governor,” Huckabee said Tuesday. “Ninety-two percent of the time, I denied the requests.” Well, Mike, I guess it should have been 93% of the time. I’ll make a promise right now, on this site, on this post, that if I were to ever become governor clemency and pardoning would all but not exist, and that is a promise that I feel ALL governors must make, especially Republican ones. Of course Democrats are going to let just about anybody walk out of the prisons, blaming over crowding, but Republicans are supposed to be the “tough on crime” group of politicians, and dammit I demand they live up to that reputation!

Kevin asked me to cover this one because he didn’t want any sort of personal bias on his part to slip into the piece, because it is a very serious matter and he knew I didn’t have much of an opinion on Huck one way or the other. I’m not forming my opinion about this case because of anything that has been written about Huck on this site, I have my own personal things that I disagree with Huck on (specifically trade protectionism), and things I agree 100% with him on (like the Fair Tax). However, letting people out of prison with out being 110% sure that they deserve to be let out is wrong, dangerous, and irresponsible. I hope that Mike Huckabee realizes this now…although it’s a little late.

Comments (18)

18 Comments »

Comment by Tommy H. on December 2, 2009

Actually, Clemmons was a rapist too. He was arrested for raping girls after getting out.

KTracy said something about this on Facebook – and it makes you wonder just how many of Huckabee’s 8% have gone on to commit other horrific crimes that went unreported in the media.

Comment by travis on December 2, 2009

Thank you for the extra info. Tommy, I hadn’t read that, but it doesn’t surprise me.

Comment by kevintracy on December 2, 2009

Thanks for posting this so quickly, Travis.

Tommy is actually right – killing cops was hardly his first unforgivable crime after being released by Huckabee. Here are some other thoughts…

Between 1,000 and 2,000 requests for clemmency came to his desk every year. Let’s assume 1,500 since that’s the average between the two numbers. That means every year, Huckabee released 120 inmates. 120 convicted criminals.

Over 10 years, Huckabee released 1,200 convicts.

The only reason we know of these two cases is because their victims were murdered. In this latest case, Clemmons went on to rape young women. We just didn’t hear about that because it wasn’t national news.

I really want to know how many of Huckabee’s ~1,200 convicts are guilty of rape, robbery, and other violent crimes and how much their releases have cost society.

Like Travis said, we’re supposed to be the “tough on crime” party. Releasing violent criminals from prison really doesn’t seem like the best way to reform our party.

Comment by Joseph on December 2, 2009

“he was the cause of a rape and 4 police officer murders”…are you kidding me? You actually are saying that Huckabee is directly responsible for this? That would be like blaming me for a crime that one of my sons committed. It would be like blaming my HK45 for shooting a burglar when in fact, it was me who fired the shot. I suppose that since it is Huckabee though, we can blame him for everyone’s actions.

I suppose we should sentence all burglary and robbery juvenile suspects to 108 years in prison. That is a very fair sentence considering a lot of murderers and rapists get far less. Let’s throw all of the juveniles in prison so they can become even better citizens when they are released at age 60, when they finally are eligible for parole. You would think that when Huckabee sent notification to all parties involved, that he intended to grant clemency, that at least one of them would of objected. At least the media would surely have objected had they thought this guy was deserving of his 108 year sentence.

Not all of those clemency cases that crossed Huckabee’s desk were violent criminals. And you know that. In fact, the overwhelming majority were petty crimes like writing cold checks and traffic violations, among many other non-violent felonies. I may be wrong but I truly believe that when Huckabee granted these clemency requests, he was trying to give the recipient a second chance in life for a mistake they made when they were young and dumb. I am sure a few bad apples did get more rotten with time. But at least for now, only 2 out of more than 1200 have done so. And Clemmons was returned to prison just a couple years after his commutation from Huckabee. Yet he was released again and again, but not by Huckabee.

As for Dumond, Huckabee’s only official role in that ordeal was denying clemency. Dumond became eligible for parole on his own by serving a portion of his sentence. The parole board then granted him parole. Huckabee had no part other than writing a letter denying him but wishing him the best of luck on his parole hearing. Damn that Huckabee for wishing someone turns their life around.

Comment by kevintracy on December 2, 2009

It would be like blaming you for something yours sons did if they got arrested for vandalizing a K-Mart, you bailed them out, and then failed to keep them locked in their rooms, letting them go out and kill four police officers. It would be your fault because you’d be a really crappy parent. In fact, going back to Travis’ previous point before this, you’d be a LIBERAL parent. So, if he’s not responsible, he’s a liberal.

To Huckabee’s credit, he said he was responsible.

Comment by Travis Gearhart on December 2, 2009

Joseph, I understand wanting someone to have a fresh start, but obviously better judgements did not prevail with these two cases (maybe more?), and the cold hard fact is that if Huck didn’t grant those two clemency, then they wouldn’t have been out of jail in the first place.

Comment by Laurie on December 2, 2009

Thank you Kevin, for being a Conservative willing to look at this even when it involves a “friendly”. I have been asking myself “where’s the outrage?” from the usual suspects. But of course, Huckabee is a Republican and so the usual tirade of blaming this on liberals is missing. Thanks for nailing it: Liberal policies and “heart” have no place in the penal system.

Yep, Huckabee stepped into the fray with clemency, leading to parole but it didn’t stop there. From a Seattle Times article:

“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.”

More than enough incompetency to go around. It is also reported that family members say he had declared himself Jesus, was certain the Apocalypse was upon us and had, the night before his latest spree, said he’d kill them all. Wow.

Comment by Laurie on December 2, 2009

Sorry, Travis- my thanks to you.

Comment by Laurie on December 2, 2009

One last point. I think this squashed any aspirations Huckabee might harbor for the GOP Presidential nomination. Anybody remember Willie Horton? It’s worth knowing that the media strategist who saw that as a political opportunity for GHW -and once infamously said that the only quesiton was whether to depict Willie with a knife or not in the attack ad that killed Dukakis- is now the President of Fox News.

Come election time, I think there are those on both sides of the Aisle that will use the same tactics.

Comment by LD Jackson on December 2, 2009

You can see how I feel about this on my own website. Suffice it to say that I do believe Huckabee was too lenient on Clemmons, but he made his decision based on the information that he had at that time. He did not have the luxury of knowing the future. I admire Huckabee for coming out and taking responsibility, but the responsibility was not his to share completely. Many other factors share the blame for what has happened.

Comment by Joseph on December 2, 2009

Laurie, you are right. This Clemmons guy was a bad dude indeed. He committed several crimes during his life. The item you seem to not see is that most of them happened after Huckabee commuted his sentence. Clemmons was sentenced to 107 or 108 years for robbing an empty house, stealing a purse, and having a gun on school grounds. That was his record at the time his file came to Huckabee’s desk. As far as I know, could be wrong, the incidents that happened in court with the throwing of a lock and some use of another piece of metal never resulted in charges. So it boils down to a 107 year sentence for robbery, burglary, and whatever the firearm charge was. All this for a 16 year old kid. In most states, I would venture to guess this kid would have been sent to juvenile camp instead of prison and released at age 18 with a sealed record.

Based on what Huckabee knew at the time, I can not fathom anyone raising a stink over commuting this sentence to 47 years, and in fact, no one did. It is only after all these years and many releases by other officials that it comes to bite Huckabee and only Huckabee. Many others had the chance to lock this guy up for good and they didn’t. These people actually had a good history of criminal behavior to base the punishment on and chose not to and they get a free pass.

I guarantee you that had Huckabee denied commuting his sentence, Clemmons would of been released around 55-60 years old and went on a killing spree and everyone would blame Huckabee for keeping a 16 year old kid locked up in prison only to grow more evil being around all those felons. Heck, I am sure one of the cold check writers that Huckabee pardoned will turn up one day to be the next CEO of an ENRON and Huckabee will get blamed for that too. Point is, doesn’t matter what Huckabee does or doesn’t do, those who hate him, hate him and will do whatever is necessary to make everyone else hate him.

Comment by Travis Gearhart on December 3, 2009

Joseph, perhaps you missed the part of my article saying that I DIDN’T have major feelings toward Huckabee, one way or the other. Also, you must have missed the part where he had an extremely VIOLENT record while in prison, and the part where I wrote that yes, if it had only been the burglarizing, I could see the commuting. However, the burglaries combined with the record of violent behaviour should have sent off a HUGE red flag, and it didn’t. Therefore, yes, the responsibility lands on former Governor Huckabee, and he has owned up to that blame, to his credit. The odds of your scenario happening makes us assume that he would have been out on parole at age 55, but they don’t give parole to those that haven’t earned it (i.e….NOT BEING VIOLENT WHILE IN PRISON)

Comment by kevintracy on December 3, 2009

Travis,
Joseph doesn’t actually read our posts. He believe he can make his point by changing the topic and launching attacks against anybody who dares question the beloved talk show host.

Pingback by Gov. Tim Pawlenty Attacks Huckabee on Clemency | Kevin Tracy on December 3, 2009

[...] When Travis first wrote about this story on ktracy.com, he said very plainly that this is supposed to be the party of being tough on crime. Well, that was the cornerstone of Pawlenty’s attack. Pawlenty proudly declared on the Laura Ingraham show that he has never given clemency to an inmate, ever. He admits to pardoning very small offenses AFTER their time is done and punishment is served, but if he was in Huckabee’s shoes, those four police officers would still be alive today. [...]

Comment by Joseph on December 3, 2009

I don’t read the posts? Are you looking over my shoulder somehow? Where are you hiding?

Travis, I did not mean to insinuate that you hated Huckabee or even Kevin. I was meaning to explain that more and just forgot. I meant to implicate people like Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, and others who are in love or was in love with Mitt Romney.

Kevin, I am not sure where I tried to change the topic, it was not my intention. I may of brought up past writings to support a train of thought but never intended to change the subject.

As for his violent record while in prison, was he charged for those infractions? If so, why were they not reported initially? If they were not charged, who is to say that Huckabee even knew about them?

Comment by Travis Gearhart on December 3, 2009

Joseph, the violent infractions don’t have to be formal charges. I’m sure he was put in solitary confinement, and as noted on several pieces, most notably Cnn.com and the AP, yes, the infractions were well documented. As far as Huckabee not knowing about them, thats a coin flip as to which is worse: If he knew he didn’t care, and if he didn’t know then he’s incompetant for not doing his job right. I implied that you didn’t read the post because I covered this pretty fairly and like I’ve said, don’t feel strongly about Huck one way or the other. This, however, would infuriate me, and I’m surprised it doesn’t you, that a Republican would look past such infractions and allow prisoners to be let out of jail to rape and pillage. Put yourself in the victims’ family’s place. What if the prisoner Huck let out raped your wife (God forbid)? Perhaps you’d have a different opinion on this matter, and understand why clemency and pardons should not be granted “willy nilly”.

Comment by Joseph on December 3, 2009

You honestly think that Huckabee made decisions regarding clemency requests, “willy nilly”? You honestly think that? You honestly think he did not care what any of these petitioners did to get locked up, only cared about getting them out?

With 1200 requests a year coming to his desk, why would he search for more documentation that was not included in his file or why would he even guess that there might be?

Being a Republican has nothing to do with anything. I am only a Republican so I can vote in primaries. Otherwise, I would register as Independent.

I wonder what Republicans think about the Ramos and Compeon case? I have heard several that demanded their pardons. Curious what they would then think if those two committed a murder or other violent crime now? Sure, the chances are unlikely but no one knows for sure that it couldn’t happen. Perfectly nice people have done stranger things.

Everyone is an arm chair quarterback for a reason, hindsight is 20/20. Having choices and making decisions is hard. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong. All I ask is that you give it your best and an honest effort. I think Huckabee did that and just got it wrong.

Comment by Steve on December 7, 2009

Have heard that Clemmons was less than a model prisoner prior to Huckabee’s commutation. Curiously, I have not seen any evidence of this…could you forward a link to an article or two? I’m wondering why, with such a spotty inmate record would the parole board issue the pardon after Huckabee merely reduced the initial sentence from 108 yrs. to 47 yrs for the actual crimes committed as a minor(burglary, robbery (unarmed) and posession of firearm at school). Also curious as to why there was not one documented objection to the commutation – surely the prison warden, or guards would have noted such bad behavior.

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Clemency Awarded To Rapist and Cop Killer

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