Uh oh: Huckabee commuted sentence of Washington cop-killer

[low preference guy]

Huckabee commuted sentence of Washington cop-killer

http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/295247.php

[catdd]

He's finished as a politician, at least as a presidential candidate.

[angelatc]

Oooh. I had to Google to refresh my memory, but there was another guy - a convicted rapist - that the Huckster let go early that also killed two women.

That didn't bother me as much as the lack of any remorse over the decision though.

Bye bye Huck. Enjoy your talk show.

[jake]

wow. big news.

[sparebulb]

Looks like this is a red-meat opportunity for CNN and MSNBC. Fox can't exactly be tough on a certain red-state governor for being too soft on criminals. Fox "news" contributors are infallible.

The real losers here will be those that are convicted that deserve clemency. Another victory for the jackboot.

[columbusviking]

Sad thing is there are probably a bunch of guys that served or are serving time (Under Huck's rule) for non violent, consensual acts.

[IPSecure]

Fox "news" contributors are infallible.

Like O'Reilly (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1013043mackris1.html)?

[pcosmar]

Wow,
What a strange bunch of random coincidences. :rolleyes:

Is this the Body that they will pin this on, or did he do it? And why?
And a big deal is made of Huck commuting his sentence, but what of Washington state prosecutors. They just released him. And who put up money for this loser.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010385617_webmansought29.html

Clemmons' criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.

Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child. He was released from custody just six days ago, even though was staring at seven additional felony charges in Washington state.
Seems a story that's just full of questions. :(

[sofia]

Holier than thou types like Huckster feel morally superior by unleashing these beasts upon us.

[Grimnir Wotansvolk]

Sad thing is there are probably a bunch of guys that served or are serving time (Under Huck's rule) for non violent, consensual acts.This. Not that it doesn't deserve attention in its own right, but I'm kind of bothered by how passionately angry people get when they hear about 1 or 2 rapists/murderers getting set free, yet have nothing to say about the millions of victimless criminals rotting away in jail.

[Dieseler]

Not the first time.

Murder Victim's Mother Assails Huckabee
Says GOP Presidential Hopeful Shouldn't Be President Due To His Handling Of Case Of Wayne DuMond, Who Killed Her Daughter

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/05/earlyshow/main3577585.shtml

[klamath]

Not the first time.

Murder Victim's Mother Assails Huckabee
Says GOP Presidential Hopeful Shouldn't Be President Due To His Handling Of Case Of Wayne DuMond, Who Killed Her Daughter

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/05/earlyshow/main3577585.shtml

This gets a lot worse. There are letters out there on the Dumond case showing where Dumonds earlier rape victims wrote to huckabee pleading with him not the pardon Dumond. He did it anyhow. If Huckabee becomes a serious contender all of these will sink him.

[sofia]

the pathetic Ron Paul campaign had so much to work with. We could have EASILY blown Huckster and McCain out of the water

....but they did nothing

nice guys finish last

[youngbuck]

I don't think it's accurate at the moment to call him a cop-killer. He's not even officially a suspect. He's just a person of interest last I read: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091130/ap_on_re_us/us_officers_shot

This of course could change any minute. I'm just saying that this guy named Maurice Clemmons is technically not a suspect at the moment.

[__27__]

This. Not that it doesn't deserve attention in its own right, but I'm kind of bothered by how passionately angry people get when they hear about 1 or 2 rapists/murderers getting set free, yet have nothing to say about the millions of victimless criminals rotting away in jail.

“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against . . . We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

[BlackTerrel]

This. Not that it doesn't deserve attention in its own right, but I'm kind of bothered by how passionately angry people get when they hear about 1 or 2 rapists/murderers getting set free, yet have nothing to say about the millions of victimless criminals rotting away in jail.

There are a lot more than 1 or 2 rapists/murderers that get set free.

But your point stands. Our jails are full of people who are in there for bullshit crimes.

[ramallamamama]

I don't think it's accurate at the moment to call him a cop-killer. He's not even officially a suspect. He's just a person of interest last I read: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091130/..._officers_shot

This of course could change any minute. I'm just saying that this guy named Maurice Clemmons is technically not a suspect at the moment.

It stinks that so many on a 'liberty' forum are so quick to convict this lone gun nut patsy.

[__27__]

There are a lot more than 1 or 2 rapists/murderers that get set free.

But your point stands. Our jails are full of people who are in there for bullshit crimes.

Not to mention the innocent who are rotting, let alone put to death by the state.

[ramallamamama]

Oh any word from the witnesses yet?

YouTube - Erasing Memories: No sunglasses needed for this Neuralizer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu59KU2RyYs)

[angelatc]

HuckPAC speaks: (http://www.huckpac.com/?Fuseaction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=2907)


Should he 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. He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence from 1990, this commutation made him parole eligible and he was then paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time. He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him. It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior but was not kept incarcerated by either state. This is a horrible and tragic event and if found and convicted the offender should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Our thoughts and prayers are and should be with the families of those honorable, brave, and heroic police officers.

Passing-the-buck Huck.

[Mitt Romneys sideburns]

Not gonna stick. "Maurice Clemmons" isnt a fun name to say. You got to have a name with a bit of a joyful kick to it. "Willie Horton", "Tookie Williams". . . "Maurice" just doesnt have the same ring to it. The media will never latch on to this one.

[anaconda]

Cops lives are no more important than anyone else's.

[devil21]

Not gonna stick. "Maurice Clemmons" isnt a fun name to say. You got to have a name with a bit of a joyful kick to it. "Willie Horton", "Tookie Williams". . . "Maurice" just doesnt have the same ring to it. The media will never latch on to this one.

Mo Clemmons has a certain ring to it though.

[angelatc]

Can you imagine how this place would explode if something like this happened to Ron Paul?

I found this odd. I peeked into the Huck's Army forums, and there's not a word about this there. I clicked on all the blogs listed on their blog roll, and only 1 has a post about it. And - that post is really just a rehash of news, no opinion attached.

[John of Des Moines]

Not gonna stick. "Maurice Clemmons" isnt a fun name to say. You got to have a name with a bit of a joyful kick to it. "Willie Horton", "Tookie Williams". . . "Maurice" just doesnt have the same ring to it. The media will never latch on to this one.

"The Clemmons' Commutation" does have a nice ring to it. But "The Huckabee/Clemmons' Commutation" sounds the best. IMHO

[coyote_sprit]

You guys are being presumptuous for all you this Clemmons guy could have been stroking it while this all went down.

[Mitt Romneys sideburns]

"The Clemmons' Commutation" does have a nice ring to it. But "The Huckabee/Clemmons' Commutation" sounds the best. IMHO

Still might cause confusion. When you talk about Clemmons, people might get it confused with Roger Clemens, the baseball player.

[LibertyEagle]

HuckPAC speaks: (http://www.huckpac.com/?Fuseaction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=2907)


Passing-the-buck Huck.

Yup. Some smooth talking they were doing.

[freedoms-light]

Can you imagine how this place would explode if something like this happened to Ron Paul?

I found this odd. I peeked into the Huck's Army forums, and there's not a word about this there. I clicked on all the blogs listed on their blog roll, and only 1 has a post about it. And - that post is really just a rehash of news, no opinion attached.

They may have moved it to their secret "preyer room"
Oops, I forgot. That was in the "other" Huck forum.

[surf]

Cops lives are no more important than anyone else's.

As a Puget Sound resident my fear is that the cops will go all WTO on us again...

[Dianne]

Wow,
What a strange bunch of random coincidences. :rolleyes:

Is this the Body that they will pin this on, or did he do it? And why?
And a big deal is made of Huck commuting his sentence, but what of Washington state prosecutors. They just released him. And who put up money for this loser.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010385617_webmansought29.html

Seems a story that's just full of questions. :(


It's funny you should say that, but I was just commenting at the dinner table tonight how there are sooooooooooooooooooo many "random" coincidences lately; too random.

Oh and if you remember correctly, the last time Huckabee ran; there was also a lot of scandal about someone else he commuted the sentence for that murdered again. Now this will absolutely finish him... But the murder of those four officers is entirely bizaar... off the wall... out of left field. Have you noticed every week now there is one unbelievable story that completely diverts attention off of what we should really be concerned about?

[Liberty Star]

I'm not a Huck fan but it will be very wrong for anyone to blame him for this.

On to CNN's craziness, I was just channel surfing, this CNN taking headess ( has her own show, don't know her name) just painted this Washington cop shooter suspect as some Jesus crazy or something to that effect. Once again aur media does not fail to push simplistic attention grabbing conclusions to miseducate people when there is almost always complex set of motivators behind such violent acts.

[revolutionary8]

I'm not a Huck fan but it will be very wrong for anyone to blame him for this.

On to CNN's craziness, I was just channel surfing, this CNN taking headess ( has her own show, don't know her name) just painted this Washington cop shooter suspect as some Jesus crazy or something to that effect. Once again aur media does not fail to push simplistic attention grabbing conclusions to miseducate people when there is almost always complex set of motivators behind such violent acts.

Yep, with ya.
And to don the Tfoil hat: I don't think the Huckster picked those names (to pardon) out of his ass hat.
Random my ass.

Problem-Reaction-Solution

[AmericaFyeah92]

I can actually understand why some people may fear KSM entering into the justice system now. If an individual who is deemed psychotic, brings guns to his school, gets convicted of robbery, and rapes a 9-year-old is out free by his 30's and then goes colombine in a coffee shop...who can have any confidence?

Not that there's any chance of KSM & co. getting off, but i can see where some people are coming from. We tolerate the pathologically criminal FAR too much

[Liberty Star]

Yep, with ya.
And to don the Tfoil hat: I don't think the Huckster picked those names (to pardon) out of his ass hat.
Random my ass.

Problem-Reaction-Solution


I wasn't sure at first what you meant or implication of my own post that you may be reading into if I read your response right.

Just did quick google to check into what I think you suggested, I may have to take back my word about not holding Huck accountable at all if what this news story suggests is grounded in facts:


Perhaps most damning in the story is the allegation that Huckabee freed many prisoners because the prisoners in question had "found Jesus." According to an ABC story some of the prosecutors felt that Huckabee (a deeply religious man himself) was moved by various evangelical leaders who made pleas on behalf of prisoners who had converted while in prison

http://www.examiner.com/x-5738-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m11d30-Update--Mike-Huckabees-history-of-commuted-sentences-under-scrutiny-after-Maurice-Clemmons-story

Don't know this sources very well, but my mind on this no longer made up. This opens some more questions now.

[revolutionary8]

I wasn't sure at first what you meant or implication of my own post that you may be reading into if I read your response right.

Just did quick google to check into what I think you suggested, I may have to take back my word about not holding Huck accountable at all if what this news story suggests is grounded in facts:



http://www.examiner.com/x-5738-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m11d30-Update--Mike-Huckabees-history-of-commuted-sentences-under-scrutiny-after-Maurice-Clemmons-story

Don't know this sources very well, but my mind on this no longer made up. This opens some more questions now.

;)

Not Crazy. :p

[Liberty Star]

Suspect who reportedly had his sentence commuted by Huckabee because he had been "saved" in prison has been shot dead by a lone officer:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8388396.stm

[Zippyjuan]

Huckabee was offered lists of names from the parole board for people considered candidates for pardons. In this case, Clemons was a teenager given a particularly harsh sentence. The pardon was conditional on the person not getting into troubles again- and Clemon's pardon was later revoked when he was arested again. Huckabee had reviewed some 1200 cases a year. Yes, some will slip thorough who should not have been pardoned but also a lot of people who did not deserve to be kept in jail longer were also freed- and this gave them their rightful freedom as well as saving taxpayers money.

He elaborated somewhat during a brief appearance on Fox News. Under the sympathetic questioning of commentator Bill O'Reilly, Huckabee said he granted Clemmons' clemency request -- one of 1,200 that crossed his desk annually -- because of Clemmons' young age at the time of his conviction and the severity of his sentence. He said prosecutors never contacted him, though they did lodge a protest with the state parole board.

Huckabee joined O'Reilly in criticizing two judges who freed Clemmons, 37, after he posted $15,000 bond just a few days before the slayings. He had been jailed on charges of second-degree rape in a case involving his wife's daughter.

"By this point this guy's a career criminal with an escalating sense of violence and psychotic behavior," Huckabee said. "There's no explanation for why he was out on the streets."

Clemmons was convicted in Arkansas of aggravated robbery, burglary and possession of a firearm for a crime spree he embarked upon at age 16; at his sentencing, he threw a padlock from his holding cell that missed a bailiff and hit his mother. In 1999, Clemmons applied for clemency and asked for a lower sentence, making him eligible for parole.

"Where once stood a young . . . misguided fool who's [sic] own life he was unable to rule . . . now stands a 27-year-old man who has learned through the 'school of hard knocks' to appreciate and respect the rights of others," Clemmons wrote.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Marion Humphrey supported the clemency application. Humphrey said Monday that Clemmons had a good demeanor and seemed a promising candidate for rehabilitation. In 2000, Huckabee cut Clemmons' sentence in half, making him immediately eligible for parole.

"It's not unreasonable to give him a second chance," Humphrey said. "I believe that's the spirit in which then-Gov. Huckabee acted."

Not long after his release, Clemmons was convicted of robbery and returned to prison. He was supposed to serve until 2015. However, in 2004 the state parole board unanimously granted Clemmons parole, after his then-fiancee told them that "when he left the first time he was not ready." There is no record of Huckabee interceding.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-huckabee1-2009dec01,0,6987.story
Huckabee has no blame in the situation.

[angelatc]

It's funny you should say that, but I was just commenting at the dinner table tonight how there are sooooooooooooooooooo many "random" coincidences lately; too random. Oh and if you remember correctly, the last time Huckabee ran; there was also a lot of scandal about someone else he commuted the sentence for that murdered again. Now this will absolutely finish him... But the murder of those four officers is entirely bizaar... off the wall... out of left field. Have you noticed every week now there is one unbelievable story that completely diverts attention off of what we should really be concerned about?

It's chaos theory. Shit happens, as we used to say back in the late 80's.

[gls]

I think it is great that Huckabee is getting flack for this, deserved or not. He is one of the worst politicians on the national stage - an outspoken opponent of liberty - and anything that appears detrimental to his future political aspirations can only be a good thing.

[klamath]

Huckabee was offered lists of names from the parole board for people considered candidates for pardons. In this case, Clemons was a teenager given a particularly harsh sentence. The pardon was conditional on the person not getting into troubles again- and Clemon's pardon was later revoked when he was arested again. Huckabee had reviewed some 1200 cases a year. Yes, some will slip thorough who should not have been pardoned but also a lot of people who did not deserve to be kept in jail longer were also freed- and this gave them their rightful freedom as well as saving taxpayers money.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-huckabee1-2009dec01,0,6987.story
Huckabee has no blame in the situation.

Sorry but this isn't the first case. Do a google search of Dumond. This is a guy that despite the pleading letter of his rape victim Huckabee pardoned. Dumond then went on to brutally murder and rape another two women. Dumond had a horrible record and was still released.

[Zippyjuan]

I did say that not all pardons ended up being the right decision- there are examples such as the one you cite who should have stayed in jail but there are also literally thousands he pardoned when it was the right decision. A couple mistakes does not make the overall plan wrong. Would you prefer to keep people in jail who do not belong there? Do you like to pay taxes to keep those people behind bars? What about their civil liberties and rights? Maybe we should just lock up everybody.

[ramallamamama]

Case closed. It was a lone gun nut. Move along, slaves. (or we'll arrest you too)

Seattle Police Kill Suspect in Officer Slayings

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/01/us/AP-US-Officers-Shot.html?_r=2&emc=na


SEATTLE (AP) -- The man suspected of gunning down four police officers in a suburban coffee shop was shot and killed by a lone patrolman investigating a stolen car early Tuesday. Four people were arrested for allegedly helping the suspect elude authorities during a massive two-day manhunt.

Maurice Clemmons was carrying a handgun he took from one of the dead officers when a Seattle policeman recognized him near a stolen car in a working-class south Seattle neighborhood about 2:45 a.m., Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said.

The vehicle was running but unoccupied when the officer pulled up, radioed in the license plate number and realized the car was stolen, Pugel said.

The officer saw something moving, got out of his car, saw Clemmons and ordered him to show his hands and stop.

''He wouldn't stop,'' Pugel said. ''The officer fired several rounds.''

Clemmons also had sustained a serious gunshot wound from one of the four officers killed in the coffee-shop shooting.

Police planned to arrest more people who helped Clemmons.

''We expect to have maybe six or seven people in custody by the day's end,'' said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County sheriff. ''Some are friends, some are acquaintances, some are partners in crime, some are relatives. Now they're all partners in crime.''

Three people were booked into the Pierce County Jail on Monday and early Tuesday for investigation of rendering criminal assistance on four counts of first-degree murder. They are Ricky Hinton, Eddie Lee Davis and Douglas Edward Davis. Troyer said a getaway driver also was arrested. That person's identity wasn't immediately known.

On Monday, officers detained a sister of Clemmons who they think treated the suspect's gunshot wound.

''We believe she drove him up to Seattle and bandaged him up,'' Troyer said.

Authorities say Clemmons, 37, singled out the Lakewood officers and spared employees and other customers at the coffee shop Sunday morning in Parkland, a Tacoma suburb about 35 miles south of Seattle. He then fled, but not before one of the dying officers apparently shot him in the torso.

''I'm surprised that he managed to get away,'' Troyer said. ''The officer did a good job in Lakewood.''

Killed were Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42.

The officer who shot Clemmons was not injured, Pugel said.

Police said they aren't sure what prompted Clemmons to shoot the four officers, who were in uniform and working on paperwork at the coffee shop just two blocks outside their jurisdiction.

''The only motive that we have is he decided he was going to go kill police officers,'' Troyer said. He said Clemmons talked the night before the shooting about killing a group of cops and watching the news.

Police believe Clemmons chose the coffee shop because it was frequented by police officers from various agencies.

''We do not believe that the Lakewood officers were actually targeted other than that they were police officers in that location at the time where he knew he could find police officers.''

Police surrounded a house in a Seattle neighborhood late Sunday following a tip Clemmons had been dropped off there. After an all-night siege, a SWAT team entered the home and found it empty. But police said Clemmons had been there.

Police frantically chased leads on Monday, searching multiple spots in the Seattle and Tacoma area and at one point cordoning off a park where people thought they saw Clemmons. They found a handgun along with a pickup truck belonging to the suspect with blood stains inside, and alerted hospitals to be on the lookout for a man seeking treatment for gunshot wounds.

Authorities in two states were criticized amid revelations that Clemmons was allowed to walk the streets despite a teenage crime spree in Arkansas that landed him an 108-year prison sentence. He was released early after then-Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence.

Huckabee cited Clemmons' youth in granting the request. But Clemmons quickly reverted to his criminal past, violated his parole and was returned to prison. He was released again in 2004.

''This guy should have never been on the street,'' said Brian D. Wurts, president of the police union in Lakewood. ''Our elected officials need to find out why these people are out.''

Huckabee said on Fox News Channel's ''The O'Reilly Factor'' Monday night that Clemmons was allowed back on the street because prosecutors failed to file paperwork in time.

Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley, whose office opposed Clemmons' parole in 2000 and 2004, said Huckabee's comments were ''red herrings.''

''My word to Mr. Huckabee is man up and own what you did,'' Jegley said.

Clemmons was charged in Washington state earlier this year with assaulting a police officer and raping a child, and investigators in the sex case said he was motivated by visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse.

A psychological evaluation conducted in October found he was a risk to public safety, but not a bad enough risk to justify committing him, The News Tribune of Tacoma reported.

The confidential report acquired by the newspaper was ordered by a Pierce County Superior Court judge to determine whether Clemmons was competent to stand trial on the rape and assault charges. He was found competent and was released from jail after posting bail with the assistance of Jail Sucks Bail Bonds.

At the time of his arrest, he allegedly made ''religiously-themed comments, told the officer President Obama and Lebron James are his brothers, Oprah (Winfrey) is his sister and referred to himself as 'the beast,''' according to the evaluation.

[Number19]

I'm not a Huckabee supporter, but in this case he did absolutely nothing improper. In fact, his action was the right thing to do.

Clemmons was a 16 year old when he committed a burglary, the occupants were not home at the time, and an unarmed robbery in which $16 was taken. For this, he was sentenced to 104 years in prison.

Huckabee did not release Clemmons, who had already spent 11 years in prison, but only commuted his sentence to, I believe, 46 years, and only after the parole board unanimously recommended it, he got a letter of recommendation from the Democrat judge, none of the victims objected and I believe the prosecutor also did not object. At the time, Clemmons had never committed a violent crime.

What this action by Huckabee did do was to allow Clemmons to apply for parole, which was then granted, not by Huckabee, but the parole board.

The thing is, the original sentence was way out of line to the crimes.

[klamath]

I'm not a Huckabee supporter, but in this case he did absolutely nothing improper. In fact, his action was the right thing to do.

Clemmons was a 16 year old when he committed a burglary, the occupants were not home at the time, and an unarmed robbery in which $16 was taken. For this, he was sentenced to 104 years in prison.

Huckabee did not release Clemmons, who had already spent 11 years in prison, but only commuted his sentence to, I believe, 46 years, and only after the parole board unanimously recommended it, he got a letter of recommendation from the Democrat judge, none of the victims objected and I believe the prosecutor also did not object. At the time, Clemmons had never committed a violent crime.

What this action by Huckabee did do was to allow Clemmons to apply for parole, which was then granted, not by Huckabee, but the parole board.

The thing is, the original sentence was way out of line to the crimes.

He did wrong here.

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Share Print CommentsLittle Rock, Ark -- As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.

Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, revealed publicly for the first time, directly contradict the version of events now being put forward by Huckabee.

While on the campaign trail, Huckabee has claimed that he supported the 1999 release of Wayne Dumond because, at the time, he had no good reason to believe that the man represented a further threat to the public. Thanks to Huckabee's intervention, conducted in concert with a right-wing tabloid campaign on Dumond's behalf, Dumond was let out of prison 25 years before his sentence would have ended.

"There's nothing any of us could ever do," Huckabee said Sunday on CNN when asked to reflect on the horrific outcome caused by the prisoner's release. "None of us could've predicted what [Dumond] could've done when he got out."

But the confidential files show that Huckabee was provided letters from several women who had been sexually assaulted by Dumond and who indeed predicted that he would rape again - and perhaps murder - if released.

In a letter that has never before been made public, one of Dumond's victims warned: "I feel that if he is released it is only a matter of time before he commits another crime and fear that he will not leave a witness to testify against him the next time." Before Dumond was granted parole at Huckabee's urging, records show that Huckabee's office received a copy of this letter from Arkansas' parole board.

The woman later wrote directly to Huckabee about having been raped by Dumond. In a letter, she said that Dumond had raped her while holding a butcher knife to her throat, and while her then-3-year-old daughter lay in bed next to her. Also included in the files sent to Huckabee's office was a police report in which Dumond confessed to the rape. Dumond was not charged in that particular case because he later refused to sign the confession and because the woman was afraid to press charges.

[See the full letters sent to Huckabee's office here.]

Huckabee kept these and other documents secret because they were politically damaging, according to a former aide who worked for him in Arkansas. The aide has made the records available, deeply troubled by Huckabee's repeated claims that he had no reason to believe Dumond would commit other violent crimes upon his release from prison. The aide also believes that Huckabee, for political reasons, has deliberately attempted to cover up his knowledge of Dumond's other sexual assaults.

Story continues below

"There were no letters sent to the governor's office from any rape victims," Huckabee campaign spokesperson Alice Stewart said on Tuesday when contacted by the Huffington Post.

Subsequently, however, the campaign provided a former senior aide of Huckabee's who did remember reading at least one of the letters.

But Huckabee and his aides insist that his receipt of the letters is irrelevant because the decision to release Dumond was made by the parole board. Huckabee on Tuesday again denied allegations by former parole board members that he lobbied them to release Dumond. "I did not ask them to do anything," he said. "I did indicate [Dumond's case] was sitting at my desk and I was giving thought to it."

Charmaine Yoest, a senior adviser to the Huckabee campaign, told the Huffington Post: "I think what should be considered here is that if he [Huckabee] could have changed what happened, he would. His whole life has been about respect for life and understanding the value of each individual life. Nobody regrets the loss of life here more than him."

In 1996, as a newly elected governor who had received strong support from the Christian right, Huckabee was under intense pressure from conservative activists to pardon Dumond or commute his sentence. The activists claimed that Dumond's initial imprisonment and various other travails were due to the fact that Ashley Stevens, the high school cheerleader he had raped, was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, and the daughter of a major Clinton campaign contributor.

The case for Dumond's innocence was championed in Arkansas by Jay Cole, a Baptist minister and radio host who was a close friend of the Huckabee family. It also became a cause for New York Post columnist Steve Dunleavy, who repeatedly argued for Dumond's release, calling his conviction "a travesty of justice." On Sept. 21, 1999, Dunleavy wrote a column headlined "Clinton's Biggest Crime - Left Innocent Man In Jail For 14 Years":

"Dumond, now 52, was given conditional parole yesterday in Arkansas after having being sentenced to 50 years in jail for the rape of Clinton's cousin," Dunleavy wrote. "That rape never happened."

A subsequent Dunleavy column quoted Huckabee saying: "There is grave doubt to the circumstances of this reported crime."

After Dumond's release from prison in September 1999, he moved to Smithville, Missouri, where he raped and suffocated to death a 39-year-old woman named Carol Sue Shields. Dumond was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison for that rape and murder.

But Dumond's arrest for those crimes in June 2001 came too late for 23-year-old Sara Andrasek of Platte County, Missouri. Dumond allegedly raped and murdered her just one day before his arrest for raping and murdering Shields. Prior to the attack, Andrasek and her husband had learned that she was pregnant with their first child.

Dumond died of natural causes while in prison on September 1, 2005. At the time of his death, Missouri authorities were readying capital murder charges against Dumond for the rape and murder of Andrasek.

* * *

Huckabee has refused to release his gubernatorial administration's records on the matter, saying that he was concerned for the privacy of Dumond's victims and that the records contain sensitive law enforcement information.

The Arkansas Parole Board also refuses to make public any letters or warnings it received from Drumond's victims. "We don't release comments for or against a clemency application or a parole case," the Board's spokesperson said, "except when they are comments from public officials."

But most of the women assaulted by Dumond and interviewed for this story say that Huckabee could have made information public while guarding their privacy. Law enforcement authorities also scoffed at the idea that anything in the records would have harmed an ongoing investigation since Dumond is no longer alive .

The records revealed in this story -- including correspondence between Dumond's victims and Huckabee, as well as the governor's own file regarding Dumond -- were provided to me in the fall of 2002 by a Republican staffer to then-Gov. Huckabee.

I made the decision not to make the files public at that time because of concern for the privacy of the rape victims and their families. I felt that their right to privacy outweighed the public's right to know, although I understand why many people would disagree.

Now that Huckabee is running for president, and after consulting with the victims and their families, I have decided to proceed, given what his actions on the case - and his attempts to whitewash his involvement in it -- say about his judgment and integrity.

During a 2002 bid by Huckabee to be re-elected governor of Arkansas, the staffer who provided the documents attended a meeting where Huckabee and top aides expressed concerns that information in the files showing that other women had told Huckabee about being raped by Dumond might somehow become public, and thus become an issue for his opponent. The information remained secret, and Huckabee won a tight race for re-election.

The staffer said that during that same period, another senior aide to Huckabee suggested asking other state agencies, which might have portions or even the entirety of the Dumond file, to transfer their records to the governor's office. If the files were transferred, the aide to Huckabee said, they would no longer be obtainable by reporters or political opponents under the state's Freedom of Information statute.

Arkansas has one of the most progressive Freedom of Information laws in the country. People need only to make requests orally whereupon state officials have to quickly respond and make them public. Governors, in sharp contrast, have wide latitude in deciding which of their own files to make public.

"The files had to be disappeared because there just wasn't a plausible explanation for the governor's stance," the former staffer said. "I mean, what could the governor say? That he believes these women made up their stories? That women lie when they say they are raped?"

Asked on Tuesday whether Huckabee would release his file on Dumond, campaign spokesperon Alice Stewart said, "We're not the governor, we don't have the file." Asked if Huckabee would ask the current governor to release the file, she responded, "No. I don't want to see it. You apparently want to see it."

* * *

Dumond raped Ashley Stevens, Clinton's distant cousin, in 1984 when she was a 17-year-old high school student in Forest City, Arkansas.

He was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison, plus 20 years. In 1992, Jim Guy Tucker, who became governor of Arkansas after Clinton left office, reduced Dumond's sentence to 39.5 years.

Shortly after taking office in 1996, Huckabee announced his intention to commute Dumond's sentence to time served. A public outcry ensued.

Stevens, her father, and Fletcher Long, the Arkansas state prosecuting attorney who sent Dumond to prison, met with Huckabee to protest.

"'This is how close I was to Wayne Dumond,'" Stevens says she told Huckabee at the time. "'I will never forget his face. And now I don't want you ever to forget my face.'"

Stevens now says: "This isn't and was never about politics. This is about a rapist. This is about a murderer. ... I might never forget Dumond's face, but there are other women [for whom] Dumond's face was the last thing they ever saw on this earth... I would hope that Huckabee would remember the faces of his victims."

Stevens, who had been silent about her rape and not identified in the press for more than a dozen years, finally spoke out publicly in 1996 after feeling frustrated by her meeting with Huckabee. Twenty women members of the state House of Representatives protested the commutation proposal. The editorial pages of some Arkansas newspapers questioned Huckabee's judgment and suggested he reconsider.

What the public never knew, however, was that other women who had been sexually assaulted by Dumond had privately written Huckabee about their anguish. Their very private attempts at changing Huckabee's mind, they later said, were based on concerns that speaking out publicly would have been too painful and traumatizing.

One such letter was from the daughter of a Dumond rape victim:

When you ran for office, one of the reasons I voted for you was the fact you are/were a Baptist preacher. I come from a very strong Baptist background... [O]ne of my grandfathers is also a preacher. I have always been a faithful church member where I am the choir director, yet this is one event that is not so easily forgiven.
I have prayed about these feelings, but once someone hurts your mother, or daughter the way this man hurt my mother I believe that you would feel the same...

Please understand that this letter is coming from my heart.... I would love to have the chance to talk to you about this matter as a daughter of a surviving rape victim.


The woman provided Huckabee with her personal phone number in hopes that he or at least someone on his staff would call. She says that she never heard back.

What was left unsaid in her letter to Huckabee was that she was three years old when, in the 1970s, Dumond raped her mother. The girl was in her mother's bed asleep when the rape occurred. Dumond held a butcher's knife to her mother's throat during the assault.

In an interview, her mother described how she fought with Dumond to wrestle the knife away from him, willing to risk her own life rather than suffer at Dumond's hands.

But Dumond overcame her resistance. He pointed to her daughter sleeping next to her and threatened: "If you don't cooperate with me, she'll be next."

The woman did as she was told. As Dumond continued to violently rape her, the woman recalled, she lay consciously and deliberately silent. Even as she was being assaulted, she gently stroked her daughter's hair, praying she would not wake up.

When the assault was over, the woman said, Dumond threatened to come back and rape and kill her daughter if she told anyone.

Twenty-three years after the rape, the girl who had been protected by her mother's silence attempted to persuade Huckabee to keep Dumond behind bars. Fearing that the rapist would attack her mother again, she wrote to the governor:

Governor Huckabee, I really wish you could spend one night in my mother's home. Even though twenty years have past [sic?] she still has trouble sleeping at night. The house is never dark...
Friday afternoon when I heard the dreadful news [that Huckabee intended to commute Dumond], I was the one to tell my mother. She was on her way out of town and I didn't want her to hear this on the radio while she was driving. I wish you could have heard the emptiness in her voice.


* * *

In her own letter to Huckabee, the woman who was raped by Dumond in the 1970s wrote that she felt deep guilt over what happened later to Ashley Stevens:

I feel responsible for Ashley's years of suffering at Dumond's hands because I was so naïve as to believe that since Dumond was arrested for raping me that he had learned his lesson and would not do it again. I was raised to take a person at their word, so I believed him when he said he was sorry.
The woman said in an interview that she wrote Huckabee out of concern for him. If she felt so much guilt about what happened to Ashley Stevens, she wondered, what private Hell would Huckabee go through if he commuted Dumond's sentence, and Dumond harmed or even killed someone else?

If Huckabee had any doubt that the woman and her daughter were telling the truth, included in the materials provided to him was a police report in which Dumond confessed to authorities that he had raped the woman.

According to the report, "Wayne stated that he went upstairs to the bedroom, and that the woman was asleep when he went into the room. Wayne stated the woman woke up, and he held a knife on her while he committed the rape, and that the woman's baby was in the bed with her."

When police detectives pressed Dumond to admit his involvement in other rapes, however, he "stated that he desired not to answer any further questions" and also "refused to read, sign, or initial the statement that he had made in the presence" of police officers.

Also in the file sent to Huckabee was a letter from yet another woman who said that Dumond attempted to rape her, with some striking similarities to other accounts of Dumond's assaults.

This woman wrote that she awoke in her bed to find Dumond above her: "Standing there, yielding a butcher knife above his head was the shadow of a man..."

Startled, she asked who was there. Dumond threatened her by saying he would cut her throat. But, as the woman wrote, once Dumond's "eyes got accustomed to the darkness, he saw the figure of someone laying next to me." When Dumond saw her boyfriend, he became frightened and skittish.

"At this," the woman wrote, "Wayne realized we were not alone, jumped up from the bed, and leaped down the stairs in three bounds and I heard him go out the front door...and ran across the street into the darkness."

The woman explained in her letter why Dumond was not arrested: "I was talked out of filing charges by the city police because they said rape cases are hard to prove, that I might be able to charge him with breaking and entering, assault and battery, etc., but that the evidence was slight. I took their advice."

There was additional and compelling evidence available to then-Governor Huckabee that releasing Dumond would pose a threat to society.

Dumond had been previously arrested for violent acts and an attempted sexual assault of an underage girl.

In 1972, Dumond had been arrested for his involvement in the beating death of man in Lawton, Oklahoma. Court records showed that the man who was murdered had been dating an ex-wife of a Dumond friend named Bill Cherry. Enlisting the aid of Cherry's underage daughter to lure the man to a public park, Cherry, Dumond, and a third man bludgeoned the individual to death with a claw hammer.

Dumond was granted immunity from prosecution in the case in exchange for his testimony against the other two men. On the witness stand, Dumond admitted to beating the man repeatedly over the head with a claw hammer, but denied that he struck the fatal blows.

Dumond said that when Cherry asked him to finish off the victim, he refused, only to have one of the others do the deed. Dumond's accomplices, however, claimed that it was he who was responsible for the killing.

The following year, in 1973, Dumond was arrested again, this time for attempting to assault a teenage girl in a parking lot in Tacoma, Washington. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to five-years probation.

* * *

In an effort to preempt scrutiny of the Dumond case, Huckabee has said that if the issue were to be raised during the '08 race, it would be because his rivals for the nomination feel threatened by his campaign. "Suddenly I seem to be in the cross hairs of every predator who is out there," Huckabee told reporters recently. "To me that seems to be a good sign of life."

When he was governor of Arkansas, Huckabee similarly attempted to deflect Dumond-related criticism by claiming that those raising the issue -- among them, members of the state's parole board, women state legislators, journalists, and even one of Dumond's victims -- were doing so for partisan political purposes.

"If he makes it about politics, he doesn't answer the hard questions about why he did what he did," says Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas' sixth judicial district. Jegley is a Democrat who campaigned against Huckabee when he ran for re-election because of Huckabee's actions on the Dumond case, as well as his commutation of the sentences of other convicts who went on to commit additional crimes.

Although Huckabee has yet to give a detailed account as to why he pushed to free Dumond, he provided his fullest explanation to date in his published campaign manifesto "From Hope to Higher Ground." In the book, he wrote that he was moved to act on Dumond's behalf because he believed Dumond might have been wrongly convicted. Ashley Stevens and Fletcher Long confirmed in interviews for this story that when they met with then-Gov. Huckabee, he insisted to them that Dumond might be innocent.

Huckabee also wrote in "From Hope to Higher Ground" that he moved to act on Dumond's behalf out of compassion. He said on numerous other occasions that he felt sympathy for Dumond because Dumond was allegedly castrated while awaiting trial for raping Ashley Stevens. Dumond had claimed that unknown assailants wearing masks broke into his home, hogtied him, and then surgically removed his testicles.

Evidence has since come to light indicating that Dumond might not have been attacked but engaged in an act of self-mutilation. A physician who treated Dumond after his alleged attack told police, according to state police records, that Dumond's own wife asked him "if it was possible for Dumond to have inflicted the wound himself." The Forest City Times Herald, which published a series of articles about the Dumond controversy in 1996, quoted experts on sexual predators as saying it was not uncommon for them to engage in acts of self-mutilation to garner sympathy or because they feel guilt for what they have done.

Huckabee also wrote in his campaign book that his intervention on Dumond's behalf reflected his broad philosophy that the criminal justice system is too harsh, and that his religious faith requires him to take chances to act with compassion towards the accused.

Regarding the Dumond case, a Huckabee adviser says: "It might have been wrongheaded for him to do what he did. But his heart might have been in the right place even though the outcome was horrific. What he did was for reasons of faith and compassion."

But the daughter of one of Dumond's rape victims -- herself devoutly religious -- wrote Huckabee wondering whether his faith was leading him down the wrong path:

You were called to deliver the work of the Lord as you interpret the Bible. [But] the actions you are taking you are taking in regard to Dumond's release makes me believe that you are trying to act as the Lord. There were twelve people on the jury that convicted him of this crime. There have been numerous people on the jury that convicted him of this crime.
* * *

Huckabee has also tried to deflect criticism over his role in freeing Dumond by saying that his two immediate predecessors, Jim Guy Tucker and Bill Clinton, were responsible for Dumond's release.

Huckabee wrote in "From Hope to Higher Ground": "In 1992, while Governor Bill Clinton was out of state campaigning for president, Acting Governor Jim Guy Tucker, the lieutenant governor, commuted Dumond's sentence, making him eligible for parole... While there was speculation at the time that Governor Clinton was unaware that the commutation was going to take place, I know from my understanding of the inner workings of the process in the governor's office how impossible that would be."

Tucker, however, only reduced Dumond's initial sentence of life in prison plus 20 years to a total of 39.5 years -- which meant that Dumond was still unlikely to get out of prison until he was an elderly man, if at all.

Moreover, Tucker told the Huffington Post in an interview that, in stark contrast to Huckabee's advocacy on Dumond's behalf, he had told his parole board that he did not believe Dumond should be paroled. Tucker also said that, contrary to Huckabee's claim, Clinton had entirely recused himself from the matter because Ashley Stevens was a distant relative.

* * *

Huckabee and his aides have always denied that he secretly pressured the Arkansas parole board to free Dumond in an effort to hide his involvement and avoid political fallout.

But, in a 2002 story I wrote for the Arkansas Times about Huckabee's role in freeing Dumond, four board members -- three of who spoke on the record -- said that Huckabee lobbied and pressured board members on the matter. This included a 1996 executive meeting at which the board's recording secretary -- who ordinarily tapes the entire sessions -- was asked to leave the room. Several board members and members of the state legislature have said the secret session violated state law.

Huckabee, in turn, has said that all four parole board members have lied about his role in Dumond's release from prison.

For a full and detailed refutation of that claim, read the 2002 piece here.

* * *

So while Huckabee continues to rise in the polls, Dumond's victims are left with questions as to why the former Arkansas Governor did what he did.

The woman who was raped by Dumond while her 3-year-old daughter lay beside her says that one day she worked up the nerve to call Ashley Stevens to tell her how sorry she was. The two began to discuss their shared trauma.

"It was when I first began talking to Ashley that I began to heal," the woman said.

When Huckabee pushed through Dumond's parole, she says, "It was like he believed we were lying and Dumond was telling the truth. I wish he would now say in front of the entire world whether we told the truth or lied. And if he believes we told the truth, explain why he did what he did."

In 2001, the woman ran into Huckabee in her hometown. She wanted to know if he had any regrets in light of the Missouri murders.

"He was down here on a fishing trip," she recalled, "He was in one of the convenience stores and I went in to get me a Coke. And I went up and spoke to him.

"And all he said was, `How are you doing?' That was it."

[devil21]

What I read stated that Huck granted something like 3 times as many pardons and clemencies as the two previous governors combined (incl. Slick Willy). Given the much larger number the odds of one or two going off the deep end and reoffending heinously is statistically much higher. I'm not defending Huck at all here though, especially since it appears a good portion were related to petitions from prisoners "that found Jesus" in prison or some such nonsense.

Hey Huck, everybody "finds Jesus" in prison. Didn't you know that?

[pcosmar]

What I read stated that Huck granted something like 3 times as many pardons and clemencies as the two previous governors combined (incl. Slick Willy). Given the much larger number the odds of one or two going off the deep end and reoffending heinously is statistically much higher. I'm not defending Huck at all here though, especially since it appears a good portion were related to petitions from prisoners "that found Jesus" in prison or some such nonsense.

Hey Huck, everybody "finds Jesus" in prison. Didn't you know that?

Some do. Some just make the claim.
I never mentioned it to the parole board, and was released on my prison record.

Huck is a non-issue, other than just another reason not to support him.
Washington State is more at fault here, They released him after violent crimes. And they released him 6 days prior to this event, when they had good reason not to.

I have no sympathy for this guy, he had a bullet coming. But there are still many questions unanswered. It seems they will remain so.