Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a regular contributor on the Fox news channel, might have indirectly contributed to the death of four police officers in Seattle over the weekend, when he granted clemency to Maurice Clemmons, in 2000; despite an extensive criminal history.
According to records from the Arkansas Parole Board, Clemmons, 37, the prime suspect in the cop killings, was sentenced to serve 47 years, five months and 20 days, with October 24, 2015 being the earliest possible release date.
Clemmons indicated in his clemency application that he committed aggravated robbery when he was 16 years old, having just moved from Seattle to a crime infested neighborhood in Arkansas; and that he lacked the ``mental and social skills’’ to resist the peer pressure placed upon him.
The Tacoma resident additionally explained he came from a Christian family and was ashamed of his seven month crime spree.
Clemmons ended his plea with the following written statement: ``For all the forestated reason [s], I Pray you will be compassionate to my situation and have mercy upon my by considering extending clemency to me in the form of time cut, so I can go up fore the parole bard and possibly be paroled to my family. Where I am loved, missed and sincerely needed.’’
``God Bless You for your time and consideration. It is so prayed!''’’
Then Governor Huckabee, pursuant to the Arkansas Post Transfer Board recommendations, pardoned Clemmons on March 30, 2000, making him parole eligible.
On his website today, Mr. Huckabee addressed the savage killing of the Seattle police officers by writing, ``Should he [Clemmons] 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.''
In his statement, the former Arkansas governor pointed out Clemmons later violated his parole violations, and when he was taken back to serve his full-term, prosecutors dropped charges that would have kept him behind bars.
According to the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office, Huckabee who served as governor between 1996 through 2006 commuted 165 cases, the most by any Arkansas governor since Winthrop A. Rockefeller, a Republican, commuted 329 between 1967 through 1971.
The revelation the popular former Arkansas governor pardoned Clemmons comes at a time when his name was being mentioned again as a serious contender to President Obama in 2012.
This Seattle police ambush tragedy, however, has the potential of damaging his image as being soft on crime and derailing his presidential hopes, much like it hurt Michael Dukakis in 1988, when it was learned during the presidential election that the former Massachusetts governor furloughed a murder convict, Willie Horton, who went on to murder a Maryland woman, while stabbing her companion during a weekend furlough.
Bill Lucey
[email protected]
Commutations By Arkansas Governors'
• Winthrop A. Rockefeller (1967-71): 329
• Dale L. Bumpers: (1971-75): 57
• David H. Pryor: (1975-79)-50
• William Jefferson Clinton: (1979-81): 66
• Frank D. White: (1981-83): 4
• William Jefferson Clinton: (1983-92): 75
• James ``Jim’’ Guy Tucker Jr. (1992-96): 7
• Michael Dale Huckabee: (1996-2006): 165
Source: Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office
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Arkansas Criminal History of Maurice Clemmons
• Robbery, one count in Pulaski County-Sentence Date: 8-03-1989
• Burglary, Probation Revocation, one count in Pulaski County. Sentence Date: 9-19-1989
• Theft of Property, Probation Revocation, one count in Pulaski County. Sentence Date: 9-19-1989
• Aggravated Robbery, one count, in Pulaski County; Sentence Date: 11-15-1989
• Theft of Property, one count in Pulaski County. Sentence Date: 2-23-1990
• Possession of Firearm (at a school), one count in Pulaski County. Sentence Date: 11-19-1990
• Robbery, one count in Ouachita County. Sentence date: 9-14-2001
Source: Arkansas Parole Board
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