Huckabee really screwed the pooch with this one!

[Zomby Woof]

He granted clemency to the Lakewood, WA police officer multiple-murderer. Read the details here:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010385617_webmansought29.html

Maurice Clemmons, man wanted for questioning, has long criminal history

By Seattle Times staff

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers this morning, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.

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.

[dysfunctional press]

1. i guess that huckabee won't be on any presidential ballot anytime soon....

good.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. Nice going Huckafuck

You put a cop killing baby raper on the street. What a swell guy. :eyes:

[tabasco]

3. The guy probably said he was born again in prison.

Extremely bad judgment by Huckabee results in four dead officers.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. As a Corrections shrink, I used to go into jails all the time and

every now and then some inmate would tell me he'd found Jesus in jail. I would usually just look at them and say, "Oh, really? What's Jesus in for?"

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. Well, Jesus WAS arrested, tried, and executed

Didn't actually spend much time in a Roman prison though.

[Chemisse]

6. OMG - when I saw there might be a connection

I had no idea Huckabee had done something that stupid.

I don't know why any politician would grant clemency, since when you do, you OWN anything they do once they are sprung - forever.

[MadMaddie]

14. Apparantly the list of convicts Huckabee granted parole to

is staggering! Thanks to ole Huck there are many dangerous criminals out there.

This guy was just released from prison this past Wed before Thanksgiving.

[Warpy]

20. Apparently Huckabible believes that shit he spews

and thinks anybody who gives lip service to it is legitimate.

Yeah, the guy probably claimed he found Jebus and Huck let him loose without listening to anybody else who knows all the tricks cons pull to try to get out of prison.

It throws his judgment into question, certainly. If he can be conned by thugs and other not too bright scumbuckets, he's nowhere near ready enough to confront international scumbuckets.

If he runs, ads against him need to stress that.

[Kingofalldems]

7. Will Fox even mention this?

[doc03]

12. If they can find a Bill Clinton connection n/t

[formercia]

41. Bill Clinton is from Arkansas.

That's probably good enough for Faux.

[Wednesdays]

46. Not only is he from Arkansas, he was governor before Huck

Hmmm... :think: ...yeah! There really IS a connection!! Clinton left a poltergeist in the Governor's Mansion that compelled Huck to grant the clemency! :bounce:

[formercia]

54. And Huckabee is a doppelganger, taken over by a polltergeist.

It's getting better. :rofl:

[nclib]

30. Yeah.

They'll just put a (D) next to his name.

[butterfly77]

52. If they can make it Obama's fault. somehow..

[trumad]

8. The authorities in Seattle are just as much to blame

for this guy walking the streets.

[gateley]

25. Gotta agree with you on that. nt

[bluestateguy]

9. Mike Huckabee is too liberal on crime

Barack Obama believes violent criminals should be kept locked up.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. You all remember a certain commercial for a weekend pass

being an idiot is not party specific. That said, he can kiss any further aspirations good bye

[Chemisse]

11. Actually, after looking at the link

I can't really blame Huckabee. The sentences seem huge to me, particularly for a minor who apparently had not hurt or killed anyone.



"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. Newspaper stories describe a series of disturbing incidents involving Clemmons while he was being tried in Arkansas on various charges.

"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."

[tabasco]

13. Are you fucking serious??

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.

You think robbery isn't hurting anyone???

[TwilightGardener]

16. The prosecutors who fought Huck's decision knew a bad seed when they saw one.

[Chemisse]

39. When you look at the sentences he was given

It is a staggering amount for the level of crime he committed. So I can understand why - looking at it on paper - a governor would have considered clemency.

Now it may be that the people who actually dealt with this guy recognized a bad apple when they saw him, particularly with his behaviors during the trials, but to someone who just looks over the case facts, some 200 years of jail time looks like a wildly excessive punishment, particularly for someone who was a minor.

[Chemisse]

40. I think robbery isn't assault or murder. - nt

[eleny]

15. Buh-bye Mike

[msanthrope]

17. Don't forget his pardon of Wayne Dumond---

DuMond received his second sexual assault conviction from a rape perpetrated in Arkansas in 1984. The victim, Ashley Stevens, was a 17-year-old cheerleader and a third cousin of then-Governor Bill Clinton.<9> Although she is much younger than Clinton, they share the same set of great-great-grandparents.

SNIP

After Clinton was elected president, a right-wing campaign alleged that Clinton had framed DuMond for rape.<10><11> Prominent among those pushing for DuMond to be pardoned were Guy Reel, author of Unequal Justice: Wayne DuMond, Bill Clinton, and the Politics of Rape in Arkansas; Steve Dunleavy of the New York Post; and Jay Cole, Baptist pastor for the Mission Fellowship Bible Church in Fayetteville, who had championed DuMond's cause for more than a decade on his radio show.<12>

Many of the arguments advanced by DuMond's supporters have since been shown to be incorrect. Dunleavy claimed that:

1.DuMond was a "Vietnam veteran with no record" despite arrests for violent crime and previous rape charges going back to 1972;
2.the rape victim "failed to identify DuMond in two lineups", although she had in fact identified him in the only lineup where he was present:
3.the victim had "identified two other suspects, one an ex-boyfriend", although she had never in fact identified anyone but DuMond;
4.DNA evidence had exonerated DuMond, although no such definitive evidence existed;
5.Bill Clinton had personally intervened to keep DuMond in prison, despite the then-Governor's explicitly recusing himself from the case due to his distant blood-ties to the 17-year-old victim.<13>
Dunleavy also referred to the young woman, a minor at the time of the assault, on the record as the "so-called victim", and asserted "that rape never happened".<12>
SNIP----

Missouri crimes
Following his 1999 parole, DuMond moved to Missouri in August 2000, where he married Terry Sue, a member of a church group who visited him while he was incarcerated in Arkansas. On June 22, 2001, DuMond was arrested and charged with the September 20, 2000, rape and murder of Carol Sue Shields.<22> DuMond was convicted in the summer of 2003.<23>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_DuMond

[UTUSN]

18. That was the ONLY one?!1 n/t

[thelordofhell]

19. The DU Adbot is on a roll

Advertising an autographed Mike Huckabee book.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[gratuitous]

21. Got Clemmons all convicted and sentenced, have we?

Allegations aren't proof, or so I've heard.

[SeattleGirl]

29. Talking about someone's criminal record is not convicting and

sentencing him.

[gratuitous]

42. So, Huckabee's in the clear after all?

Because if Clemmons hasn't been convicted already by every poster in this thread who is blaming Huckabee for these killings, I must have completely missed the point of their posts.

Nice try.

[Wednesdays]

47. Okay, you've convinced people here at DU

Now, try your hand at convincing the other 300 million or so in the country. Lotsa luck!

[gratuitous]

51. We just seem to form spontaneous lynch mobs for no apparent reason

We're awfully offended when people who disagree with us politically do it, but we're really quite okay with the presumption of guilt. That's all I'm pointing out to quite a number of posters in this thread who otherwise exhibit better judgment than that. But if it soothes what should be an offense to our nation's principles to be carried along with the mob, who am I to stand up for them?

[Honeycombe8]

22. Ooooooooh. That's bad. For Huckabee. Bye, bye politics. nt

[StarfarerBill]

23. While I've no doubt that his Republican rivals will bring this up,

I wonder if Democratic opponents will should he run and get so far as to face them.

[brewens]

24. Watch for FOX News to show this and...

at the bottom of the screed the 'ol Huckabee-D Arkansas. Well, I guess he's not Governor or in Congress but they may work that in somehow.

[corpseratemedia]

27. someone get a screen-shot!!

you KNOW it's coming!!

[saltpoint]

26. Damn, Zomby Woof, I love that Boxer bumper sticker.

She has gone with a shade of yellow for some time and I by god love it.

Barbara Boxer is the bee's knees.

- - -

Good post w/ a link on the murders earlier today in Lakewood, Washington.

Huckabee made the call as governor to grant Clemmons clemency, and I'm waiting to hear from (I guess) Arkansas media whether he made the decision just to make it and slap the face of prosecutors who advised against it, or if he was using a review report from credentialed behavioral health clinicians.

I think that's going to be pretty much ignored in the coverage of the story as it relates to Huckabee, but it does seem like a crucial point.

Good post. Thank you.

[alfredo]

28. Huckabee says he probably won't run in 2012

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4165007

[eleny]

31. I guess today's news knocked the "probably" right out of that

[alfredo]

33. He didn't stand a chance anyway.

[Zomby Woof]

50. That's true

But his little cult of obnoxious fundies (Chuck Norris, etc.) are true believers in his potential, and I love pissing on their fun whenever I get a chance.

[alfredo]

53. I like having them out there because it points out how weird they can be.

[krabigirl]

32. Yikes.

[Hestia]

34. Arkansas Times has the story on their front page

http://arkansastimes.com/

[saltpoint]

37. The phrase that caught my eye was "intercession by ministers."

Hmmm.

[Swamp Rat]

35. !

[aikoaiko]

36. If its true, then seppuku may be Huckabee's only political move.

Fuck Huckabee.

[slackmaster]

38. Huckabee's personal Willie Horton

:nuke:

[blondeatlast]

43. "Well. gosh golly darn, America, I made a boo-boo, but I'm still a charming little fuck."

:mad:

[CTyankee]

44. Wow, that's bad! He is so politically dead...

Well, that's one effing repuke down, so many to go...

[Wednesdays]

48. So many? Who's left?

Mitt, Sarah...and...and...?

:shrug:

[CTyankee]

49. I dunno. there'll be a fresh batch before you know it.

repukes are smelling the Dems blood in the water. some will pop up...

[tblue37]

45. Can you say, "Willie Horton?" I knew you could. nt