Find God, get out of jail, slaughter again.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Why did Mike Huckabee pardon child rapist Maurice Clemmons? Because God told him to.

Another week, another grotesque mass shooting: In Washington state this time, leaving four police officers dead, four families destroyed and nine children's lives shattered. As it's politically unfashionable to wonder whether Americans shouldn't do more to keep semi-automatic handguns away from crazy people, attention soon focused on why mass murderer Maurice Clemmons wasn't locked away, where he belonged.

Once again, former Arkansas Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee struggled to explain his catastrophically poor judgment. Once again, a violent felon turned loose on his say-so had run amok. Once again, according to Huckabee, currently a Fox News Channel talk show host, the disaster was everybody's fault but his own. He issued a buck-passing statement blaming "a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington."
--snip--

But let's start at the top, shall we? Although he posed as a conservative hard-liner, when it came to crime and punishment, the glib, self-deprecating Huckabee proved as softheaded and gullible as the woolliest sociology professor in the faculty lounge.

During the former Baptist minister's decade as Arkansas governor, it appeared that no matter how heinous an inmate's crimes, all he had to do for a pardon was drop to his knees, praise Jesus and persuade some preacher known to Huckabee of his newfound holiness. "Everybody knows that Mike Huckabee makes up his mind what to do by what God tells him to do," said one minister who gained clemency for a prisoner serving 100 years for the strong-arm robbery of elderly neighbors.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2009/12/02/huckabee_and_god_and_clemmons/index.html

[paulsby]

1. slaughter AGAIN?

that's misleading. he didn't kill anybody before he was pardoned. he was initially imprisoned at age 17 for robbery.

[tularetom]

2. That may be literally true in the case of Clemmons

Google Wayne Dumont for another example of Hucklebuck's strange clemency policies and practices.

[paulsby]

3. very true

dumont is another case entirely.

[RKP5637]

4. Apparently Huckabee hears voices telling him to do things, somehow not surprised.

"Because God told him to."

[jgraz]

5. Religious fundamentalism should be a flat-out disqualifier for political office

Huckabee has a mental illness. He needs treatment, not a talk show.

[LiberalFighter]

6. If it is not a Christian god would they still pardon them?

Does it need to be the god the pardoner believes in?

[laconicsax]

7. Study: People's opinions of God's will based on their own values

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x227401
People may use religious agents as a moral compass, forming impressions and making decisions based on what they presume God as the ultimate moral authority would believe or want. The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing. This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God's beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing.

Looks like Huckabee's moral compass says that accepting Jesus absolves someone of all guilt.

[MadMaddie]

8. I think that there is another serious problem in our legal system

Huckabee released approximately 1093 convicted felons many against prosecuting attorneys, judges, law enforcement and victims advocates. He refused to listen to anything but apparantly his gut and god.

My question: Shouldn't we be looking at the law that gives governers and Presidents the power to grant clemency? How can a governer dismiss a jury's or a judges verdict?

Should there be exemptions such as non - violent criminals, people that have be proved completely innocent of the crimes they were charged with due to DNA, witnesses telling the truth etc.

This is a HUGE issue!!

[old mark]

9. This is happening a lot lately-prisons crowded with drug users, murderers get parole

and kill again.
Just happened in Philly last year - cop was killed by bank robbers who were just given "early release" from State prison on violent felonies, including plea-bargained gun charges. This, to end "overcrowding."

mark

[snake in the grass]

10. Find Allah and stay in jail.

Religion should not play a role in these decisions. Just look at the percentage of religious people incarcerated as opposed to atheists. We are no longer living in the Bronze Age.