The current suspect in the Lakewood police murder case had his lengthy prison sentence commuted nine years ago by then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
Over the protests of law enforcement and his own state prosecutors, Huckabee commuted the sentence of Maurice Clemmons despite his long criminal record of violence and major concerns about his mental stability. Clemmons was convicted on at least five felonies in the state of Arkansas. He currently faces eight felony charges in Washington, before any charges that may result from the Lakewood killings. He was released from custody in Pierce County Jail less than a week before the Lakewood shootings.
Many are asking why Clemmons was released from the Pierce County Jail, given the seriousness of the charge pending against him (second-degree rape of a child), that there was a fugitive warrant for him in Arkansas, and that he was facing multiple felony charges in Washington. Clemmons posted $150,000 in bail through a Chehalis, Washington bond company. Bail was issued despite Clemmons’ history of assaulting police officers, and recorded statements that he had told his family members that he was Jesus Christ, that he could fly, and that he expected a visit from President Obama to confirm his status as the Messiah.
Clemmons has been in Washington State since 2004, after being released from prison in Arkansas. He started a power-washing company out of his home and has not been in trouble with the Washington police until this year. Clemmons served a total of 11 years on sentences of many decades duration before being released by Huckabee’s commutation in 1998. However, by March 2001 he was in trouble with the law again on theft and robbery charges. When he was released in 2004, he moved to Washington.
Police are currently searching for Clemmons, saying that they want to question him about the case. One thing is certain, however – if Clemmons is in fact the shooter, then Mike Huckabee’s no doubt well-intentioned pardon in the 1990s has cost the lives of four police officers and destroyed four families.
Huckabee’s extremely extensive use of the commutation power – granting 1,033 clemencies over his term as Governor, more than twice as many as had been granted by his last three predecessors combined, has been extensively critiqued in the blogosphere but has not yet seemed to dent the Arkansas governor’s political hopes or attracted much mainstream attention.
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Bob Hayes is the senior partner at DocRocket, a web content and writing services company. He is a freelance business consultant with particular expertise in software, Internet business development, and operational efficiency. In addition he maintains a personal blog at Bob Hayes Online.
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11 users commented in " Lakewood Police Murder Suspect Had Sentence Commuted By Mike Huckabee "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackArticle states, “One thing is certain, however – if Clemmons is in fact the shooter, then Mike Huckabee’s no doubt well-intentioned pardon in the 1990s has cost the lives of four police officers and destroyed four families.”
It’s always about the cops.. how about you go back and add the CHILD THAT WAS RAPED….
Another reason to vote for someone other than Mike Huckabee. This is not the only example of Huckabee being soft on dangerous criminals. Mike Huckabee should apologize to the families of the four police officers who were killed today.
Doug, I don’t have details about his other crimes so I didn’t specify them in that sentence.
I don’t even have to read more to understand that this is another liberal author.
Huckabee can’t control the people who’s sentences he’s commuted. It is unfourtunate that Huckabee’s act of compassion on one individual allowed a continuation of events to occure until people were killed. But he didnt CAUSE it to happen. You could just as easily blame all the parole board, clemmon’s PO, the police, the state of AK or WA, or even society in general. It unfourtunate that so many people play the blame game, that they keep good people from trying to do good deeds, for fear of having some kind of consequence attached to them at a later date.
I will pray, for the little girl & her family AND for the police officers & their families but this is one man’s action, and HE should be the one punished for it.
BTW, I am a registered independent, although I admittedly lean right on many issues (with the exception of Big corporations and some social programs).
Huckabee is just a bible toting liberal when it comes to criminal justice. He represents everything that is wrong with Republicans. The only thing that separates current Republicans from liberal Dems is this faith crap. What happened to worrying about things that matter like fiscal responsiblilty? Sleep well Huck.
@rolandska: Of course the criminal is the one who should be punished. But actions have consequences, and when we can clearly see how one man’s act led to tragedy downstream, we should say so. BTW, amusing that you’d call me a liberal; take a look around.
JmBlue — don’t EVEN try lumping Huckabee in with us liberals!! WE liberals would NEVER have pardoned a criminal like Clemmons. Spare me your drivel.
“Huckabee’s extremely extensive use of the commutation power – granting 1,033 clemencies over his term as Governor, more than twice as many as had been granted by his last three predecessors combined”
Enough said. This is just one more reason that proves that Huckabee’s a jerk. And a hypocrite too.
Rethugs = ignorant lying hypocrites
Hypocrites = THE DREGS of this earth
Oh, I said pardoned in my first post. I meant to say commuted. No matter, we liberals would NEVER have done that for Clemmons either!!
Heh, I made the same error when I first wrote the post, FFZ.
But the idea that liberals wouldn’t commute or pardon a sentence is absurd.
It has come to the point that police actions and lies are out of control. We must fight back.
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