From the Arkansas News Bureau in 2004:
Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that his religious background and belief in redemption played a key role in the high number of state prisoners he has pardoned or turned loose early.
“I would not deny that my sense of the reality of redemption is a factor,” the former Baptist pastor said in a radio interview with KUAR in Little Rock. “And I don’t know that I can apologize for that because I would hate to think of the kind of human I would be if I thought people were beyond forgiveness and beyond reformation and beyond some sense of improvement.”
The governor has been criticized publicly by prosecutors in Pulaski and Saline counties for his release of violent criminals.
Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley last week asked the governor to stop issuing clemencies until the Legislature can consider possible changes in the constitution, which gives the governor that power.
Jegley said he would like to see the constitutional provision changed to require the governor to explain his reasons for granting a clemency.
“Let’s face it, I give a reason every time I do one of these, but it may not be as extensive as a publicity-seeking prosecutor is going to want,” Huckabee said. “How much information do they give when they plea bargain?”
Why is it that Huckabee always attacks the messenger?
In 2004, the Arkansas Board of Parole reviewed 77 clemency cases, and 74 of them were considered to be without merit. Included in the 74 cases considered to be without merit was the case of Glen Green. Here is the link to the ARBOP report that includes Greene’s case.
Governor Huckabee, at the time, rejected the Boards opinion and decided that he would grant Green Clemency. Eventually, pressure forced Huckabee to relent on his decision. If this was an isolated case, then it could be considered a grave oversight, but it is just one out of many cases where Huckabee used questionable judgement when deciding whether to grant clemency.
Huckabee’s criteria for granting clemency was, at the minimum, unclear:
Until Tuesday, Huckabee didn’t even demand that these killers admit their guilt before asking for clemency. The Rev. Johnny Jack-son, who had arranged the aborted clemency deal for Glen Green with his friend the governor, describes Green as a humble Christian man – apparently one of Huckabee’s criteria for clemency.
But the state requires that a killer express remorse for his actions, which Green refuses to do, calling the murder “an accident.” The Rev. Jackson says he accepts Green’s “account of the incident”
How can one express remorse over a crime this brutal and be believed?
Green, a 22-year-old sergeant, kidnapped Helen Lynette Spencer on Little Rock Air Force Base, where he beat and kicked her as he tried to rape her in a secluded area. She broke loose and ran toward the barracks’ parking lot, where he caught up with her and beat her with a pair of nunchucks.
He then stuffed her into the trunk of his car and left her there while he cleaned up. Several hours later, he drove down Graham Road, past Loop Road and stopped near a bridge in Lonoke County. Green told investigators he put her body in the front seat and raped her because her body was still warm.
He dragged Spencer out of his vehicle and put her in front of the car and ran over her several times, going back and forth. He then collected himself long enough to dump her body in Twin Prairie Bayou.
Huckabee eventually had to rescind the clemency from pressure he was facing; DuMond deja vu?
After weeks of pressure from victims’ families, prosecutors and this column, Gov. Huckabee has changed his mind about granting clemency to several murderers, including a psychopath who killed a Gravel Ridge woman.
…
“I’ve thought about it a great deal and now realize that the greater good is served if a more detailed reason is provided,” said Huckabee, who will face a hostile Legislature next year that will almost certainly clip his clemency powers.
…
It’s a humiliating retreat for a governor who thought he was unstoppable. Until yesterday, he said his critics were politically ambitious prosecutors, but when prosecutors from his own party spoke out against his clemencies, Huckabee realized that if he didn’t back down, he’d hurt the Arkansas Republican Party for a generation.
The DuMond case could possibly end in a he said/she said stalemate. The Democrat parole board vs. Huckabee’s word. The problem is that Huckabee, as governor, used the same line of defense until even the republicans turned on him in 2004. Today, he has gone back to that same line of defense with the media picking up on the DuMond story. With Green, maybe his change of mind is enough to silence some critics, but the fact is that it took pressure from his own prosecutors, lawyers, and party to finally say that enough is enough.
If Huckabee wants to lead the GOP into the election next year, he must explain his reasoning then, and then how he has changed, and what shapes his reasoning today. What sort of philosophy would he use in making decisions today, as opposed to 2004? He has not answered this to my satisfaction yet. I could harp on the Wayne DuMond case, but the reality is that there is so many of these types of cases in his past that it shouldn’t be isolated to a single case, while ignoring the rest.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Actually if Huckabee wants to lead the GOP next year…all he has to do is win…
December 10th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Huck is going down in flames. so here we see how his religion plays a role in how he governs. he lets violent criminals off when they say the believe in Christ.
Huck clearly does not understand the difference between obtainign forgiveness in Christ’s eyes and serving out the penalty the law has put upon you for your ’sins.’ you can forgive someone and still have them serve out their penalty for the pain they caused someone else.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Huck won’t win. he just hands the nod to rudy. evreybody knows this amateur is not gong to win.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Rett,
For him to not split us into even more factions, and cause irrepairable damage to his ticket if he wins.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Rett, you still have not justified your comment that mormons are cultists. i want proof. lets here it. you can’t throw crap like that around without backing it up. i konw mormons, and they dont’ seem like cultists. educate me.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
“For him to not split us into even more factions, and cause irrepairable damage to his ticket if he wins”
sounds like Rudy to me.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I think I’ve been extremely willing to give Huckabee the benefit of the doubt on his “catch and release” crime policies. But this is incredibly disturbing to me.
Huckabee is willing to take the advice of an inmate’s pastor over the advice of an inmate’s paroll board. This is just one example of his self-claimed reason for getting into politics…“because I knew government didn’t have the real answers, that real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives”.
I want a politician who views his oath to uphold the laws of the land and of the Constitution as his highest responsibility. As much as I want to see this nation converted to Christ, it is such an incredibly AWFUL idea to elect politicians whose aim is to fight our religious crusades for us.
This guy is just sounding more and more like a pro-life version of Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
#1- I agree. That’s how Clinton won. Just win. And deny and deny and deny.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Dubious…I will post a ton of stuff over the next few weeks showing what mormons believe and why they are a little weary about voting for a mormon…
December 10th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
evangelicals are leary that is
December 10th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Rett,
I’m not sure what Kavon thinks, but I don’t think this is the place to post anti-Mormon propaganda on the front page. I’d say the same thing if front page posters started arbitrarily posting anti-evangelical propaganda. If the story relates to Romney in some way, then I’m sure it’s fine. If you have specific concerns, based on past statements that he’s made, about how specific doctrines of Mormonism might effect policy, I’m sure it’s fine. But, it seems extremely inappropriate to use the front-page to highlight all the “weird” doctrines of the Mormon religion.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Rett:
Take down the anti-Mormon crap immediately. This is not the place for it. I demand that your posting privileges be suspended immediately. You have shown terrible judgement in your posting patterns. You have shown yourself to be a religious bigot time and time again in recent weeks. Kavin, can you please find a new guy to cover Huckabee?
December 10th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
“Dubious…I will post a ton of stuff over the next few weeks showing what mormons believe and why they are a little weary about voting for a mormon…”
kavon, are you going to allow this. is this not below your webiste. i may have to stop coming here. what a joke.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Well, it appears that Huckabee really thought it was God’s will to release these guys. I mean, that’s how he governs. He was obviously in tune with God’s desires on the Dumond case…
December 10th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
This story about Green is sickening. The fact that Huckabee could even consider giving this guy a pardon seals the deal for me.
Huckabee is not fit to be a governor, let alone POTUS.
He is no different than all the liberals who are always defending the criminals and the terrorists.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
people talk about problems they have with mormonism, here is the problem i have with evangelicalism: from what i know of it, once you declare yourself “saved” then you are saved. it doesnt matter if you are a sinner or not. so, it leaves someone like mike huckabee very vulnerable to letting prisoners out early, especially if they claim to have found Jesus in prison. “you’re saved? great! now we’ll let you back out into the world you molestin murderer.”
December 10th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Mike isn’t running for president, he’s running for “God.” How treasonous to pass out pardons and paroles on the basis of a religious test. Being “saved” does not pay your debt to society. And so Mike wants to do what even God can’t. “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Mike has proposed nothing less than an evangelical theocracy. He may be the biggest threat to America today.
December 10th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Mike belongs with the Constitution party.
December 10th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Huckabee+ power = danger to society
December 10th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
#19. Let me give you an example of what you say. First, this link in NRO:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjM3Zjg5NWYxOGRkNzdmOWY3ZTU4ODQ2OGEyMzRkZmU=
I want to concentrate on one quote:
On Iran, Huckabee is at his most troubling. He accuses the administration of “proceeding down only one track with Iran: armed confrontation.†This is false, and the kind of rhetoric you’d expect from DailyKos bloggers, not a Republican presidential candidate. Huckabee thinks it has been a lack of diplomatic engagement that has soured our relations with Iran: “We haven’t had diplomatic relations with Iran in almost 30 years, my whole adult life and a lot of good it’s done. Putting this in human terms, all of us know that when we stop talking to a parent or a sibling or a friend, it’s impossible to accomplish anything, impossible to resolve differences and move the relationship forward. The same is true for countries.â€
Huckabee would be putty in the hands of Iran’s mullahs, just like Carter was.
Most of you are not old enough to remember how Iran treated the US as its
Yo-Yo under Carter. They would hold out the promise of releasing the Hostages,
then dash them, then hold out the prospect of releasing the hostage and then
dash them… and on and on. I don’t get the impression that Huckabee knows
when to beat the living crap out of someone when they really need it. And
there are some people in this world who really need it. Even if they claim to
be “born again”.
December 10th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
People in Iowa and South Carolina, ARE YOU HEARING THIS????
December 10th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
I believe that Huckabee is the dream candidate for the Democrats. If he were to get the nomination, we would hear a steady stream of commercials and news articles detailing his record in Arkansas, including the following:
1. Ethics – Apparently he had a penchant for accepting expensive gifts and registering for presents. He will become the corruption candidate.
2. Judgment – As this article demonstrates, he was willing to accept the recommendations of fellow pastors as to the character of convicted criminals and either release them or advocate for their release. At least one of them went on to murder two innocents in Missouri. I’m sure that eventually we will get an updated study on how many of the 700 (or 1039?) released criminals are back in prison, and the effects of the crimes they committed after their release.
3. Flip-flopping – He will be castigated as a flip-flopper on immigration, taxes, and other issues.
To be sure, many of these accusations will be untrue; however, that is irrelevant. True or not, we will see the accusations in the DNC and Clinton surrogate commercials and we all know that if you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it. We need look no further than the flip-flopping accusations against Romney to demonstrate this.
On of the most disappointing aspects of Huckabee’s candidacy is his apparent unwillingness to admit he has ever made a mistake. This is true whether the topic is ethics, immigration, taxes, or criminal administration. My impression is that he thinks he is acting in accordance with biblical teachings and so cannot back down because backing down would indicate he is backpedaling on his Christian beliefs. He then defends the indefensible to the point of lying (unless you believe the pardon board members are lying).
I think that this attitude will be disastrous if it ever is allowed to affect policy on a national level.
December 11th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Huckabee is running as a theocrat. That much should be blatantly obvious to anyone following this race. And if you question that notion, think just for a moment about why he left the pulplit–a divine calling. You don’t just up and walk away from a mission sent from God. And so Huckabee left the church to interject God into the public sphere. As another poster quoted him, “because I knew government didn’t have the real answers, that real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives.”
I don’t necessarily have a huge problem with that viewpoint other than the fact that Huckabee is supponsedly representing the Republican Party, the platform of which he seems to have no allegiances to whatsoever outside of the fact that he happens to like guns and is a Christian and thus Pro-Life.
When I consider how the “compassionate” Huckabee would handle current subprime lending fiasco, I honestly wonder whether Hillary Clinton might actually be better on the issue than he would be. That’s a scary thought. Huckabee is no small government conservative.
What I think we see in Huckabee is a guy who has made the fatal mistake of taking the Church’s rightful role in charity and assigning to government. Not only is this anathema to a free market economy, it subjugates the church to the government and steals its place of influencce in the realm of compassion. And look at the general health of churches in nanny states. Or what’s even more telling: look at the anemic rates of private giving to charities.
December 11th, 2007 at 11:59 am
[...] maybe I’m wrong. Could be; read this. Exit question: When exactly did Drudge become to the anti-Huckabee camp what Hugh Hewitt is to the [...]
December 11th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
[...] the Arkansas News Bureau, via Race42008, via Ace, Huckabee’s statement wrt his clemencies and pardons: And I don’t know that I can [...]
December 11th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I hope that Huckabee will not get the nominee of the
Republican Party so as Mitt Romney, John McCain, and
Fred Thompson. I watch FOX’s Hannity and Colmes last night
when Hannity did the interviewed with Huckabee. I don’t know
why Huckabee got into the race in the first place.
He flip-flopped just like Romney did and don’t know
what issues he stand for. I don’t want to see
another President from Hope, Arkansas. If Huckabee, Romney, McCain,
or Thompson does get the nominee in 2008–I might just stay at
home and not vote.
December 11th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
You miss the point. He is the only candidate that supports the fairtax. The rest is meaningless. The supporters of the fairtax are probably the biggest single issue voting block in the United States. These supporters of the fairtax cross economic class liness, racial and ethnic class lines. WE ARE A ONE ISSUE BLOCK.
December 11th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
dubious,
I don’t believe that Mormons are a cult. That is ridiculous, but many evangelicals do. If you want to know why, read this post I wrote: http://rightwingsparkle.blogspot.com/2007/12/mormon-question.html
December 11th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
One point implied in the article that has not been covered much in the comments is that Huck is the Ad Hominem King!
Seriously, in almost every situation he attacks the person/group rather than the argument presented. He always tries to divert the attention from his record by pointing to “liberals” or “motives” rather than dealing with content.
Huck’s answers to faults in his record:
DuMond: The liberal parole board is out to get me!
14 ethics complaints, 5 violations: Liberals were out to get me!
Taxes/Spending: “Club for Greed” is out to get me!
Pro-Illegal: The Fed screwed up! They made me do it!
Forget the many facts in DuMond proving his involvement, forget the fact that the liberals complaining didn’t decide he’d had five real ethics violations, forget that the Cato Institute and other long-time conservative entities also trash his liberal record… It’s all ad hominems and no substance from the Huckster.
December 7th, 2009 at 10:41 am
[...] more information and links, read my original article [...]