Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Mike Huckabee is as giddy as a

professional sky grifter can be, and it doesn't surprise me that some of the pardons he signed off on as Governor of Arkansas were of a questionable nature.
I mean, four cops get killed in a diner by someone set free by Mike Huckabee, that my friends is bad craziness in extremis.
That having been said, I think this deplorable incident will in the main, put a deep chill on any application of execute clemency or the power of pardons at the state or national level.
Between the political cost of Willy Horton and the terrible human cost of Maurice Clemmon's rampage what Governor or President is gonna take a chance on anyone's extenuating circumstances or personal reformation?
Clearly Mike Huckabee made a catastrophic mistake here, but neither he nor anyone else has a gubernatorial power of precognition, and when stuff like this happens the additional victims are those truly deserving of clemency who will now be denied it out of sheer fear of the consequences.

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