Mike Huckabee, Maurice Clemmons, and Wayne DuMond
December 2, 2009 by LD Jackson · 18 Comments
It was a terrible tragedy that happened Sunday, with four police officers being shot and killed by
Maurice Clemmons in the Seattle, Washington suburb of Lakewood. We can all offer our condolences and prayers, but there is really nothing that can be said or done to take away the pain of something like this happening. The officers who were killed were Mark Renninger, Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold, and Gregory Richards and nothing is going to bring them back. We can only do what needs to be done to prevent something like this from happening again.
After the shooting, Maurice Clemmons led police on a chase that had them going from place to place, following leads or tips that came in. It is now known that he was helped by several people, some of the relatives and some of them acquaintances. That chase ended in Seattle yesterday, with Officer Benjamin Kelly shooting him to death after he refused orders to stop and show his hands. Clemmons instead made a move for his gun, Officer Kelly responded accordingly, and Clemmons is no longer a threat to anyone. As for those who helped Clemmons elude the police, I hope they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There is no excuse for their actions.
Now, let’s move to Mike Huckabee. I have been a supporter of the former Arkansas Governor since he ran for President in 2008. I believed then and still believe now, that Huckabee is a decent and honest man, as well as being a very capable governor. That is not to say that he is perfect and his record of granting leniency to convicted criminals is one of his weaknesses. This first came to light during the 2008 presidential campaign, in the case of Wayne DuMond. All manner of accusations were thrown at Huckabee, after it was discovered that he had recommended parole for DuMond. When that parole was granted, he moved to Missouri where he raped and killed Carol Sue Shields.
The common misconception of this case is that Governor Huckabee wrote a letter to Wayne DuMond and told him that it was his desire that DuMond would be released. That letter was widely quoted, but part of it was left out of the quotes; namely the part where Huckabee denied DuMond’s request for a pardon or commutation of his sentence. Even though he felt DuMond had received a raw deal from the Arkansas criminal justice system, he felt the best way for him to be released would be with parole supervision. Over and over, I have heard and read that Huckabee pardoned Wayne DuMond and that is not what happened.
In the events surrounding Maurice Clemmons, Huckabee did commute his sentence. Clemmons had been convicted in 1989 when he was 17 years old and was facing a sentence of 108 years. Huckabee commuted the sentence to 47 years in 2000, which allowed him to be eligible for parole. He was released that same year, but in March 2001, he violated his parole and was arrested on aggravated robbery and theft charges. He was subsequently convicted of those charges and went back to prison. The parole violation charges were dropped because of problems with the case and he was again paroled in 2004.
After his parole, Clemmons moved to Washington, with the approval of Arkansas authorities. For five years, he lived with no criminal problems, but in May 2009, police were called to his house after reports of a disturbance. He was arrested after he assaulted the deputies who were investigating the incident. After that, there were a number of charges, including sexual abuse of a minor. From there, it appears Clemmons was in and out of jail for violent and erratic behavior. That culminated in the shooting in Lakewood and Clemmons death at the hand of Officer Kelly.
In writing this article, I do not intend to remove any responsibility Mike Huckabee may have had in either case. Huckabee has said himself that he does take full responsibility for granting Clemmons clemency. As is often said, hindsight is 20-20 and Huckabee would surely make a different decision today, based on what he knows now. That is what is key to the story. Huckabee had no way of knowing how Clemmons would turn out and had to make a decision based on what he knew then. The same applies to the Wayne DuMond case.
Too many times, we are all guilty of placing the blame on the easiest target. It is easy to sit back and throw words and phrases of blame at someone like Mike Huckabee. Because he is in the news a lot and has his own television show, he is an easy target. In this case, Huckabee clearly made the wrong decision, but it didn’t stop with the decision to commute the sentence in Arkansas. The state of Washington clearly played a very large role in their failure to keep Clemmons in jail after his behavior deteriorated so badly. The blame for what has happened in Washington does not rest with Mike Huckabee, but rather on the head of Maurice Clemmons.
Larry,
You are right on in placing responsibility for his own actions with Clemmons. I do think, however, that it is fair to look at Huckabee’s role in granting clemency to a hardened, lifelong violent offender and to question the entire system that allows a Governor (any Governor) to do this. We also have to look at the culpability of the WAshington state system, which allowed him to slip through the cracks as well. I have lost the link, but the Seattle Post Intelligencer as well as the Times each had
excellent, full accounts of exactly the path that many agencies, not just in Arkansas, took that left this man on the streets.
I do think it is a bit hypocritical of some on the right who give Huckabee slack, mainly because he is a Republican. Please. If this were a Democratic Governor, this would be branded a problem of liberalism, the Governor would be ridiculed, called soft on crime and the blood would be on his hands. A Presidential election was fought just like this by the right. Can anybody say “Willie Horton”?
Nevertheless, it is time to rise above political shot-taking. We need to ask ourselves what conditions exist in our penal system that even allows the consideration of this sort of clemency. Overcrowding, stupid drug laws (three times and you’re out for marijuana, yet a rapist gets set free?), misinterpretation of what consitutes rehabilitations- ?? All of it must be rethought to keep the dangerous criminals incarcerated.
Laurie,
Actually, Maurice Clemmons was only 17 years old when he was convicted and sent to prison for 108 years. He was 27 when Huckabee commuted his sentence. At the time, he was not a hardened, lifelong violent criminal.
You caught that, too, huh Larry
As soon as I posted it I wanted to erase it, as I was combining my frustration with the Washington situation (where he was a long term hardened criminal) with the Huckabee one. My apologies.
Still, the system as a whole should be looked at. Should one man be allowed to override a prosecuted, court approved verdict? And what the heck happened in Washington to allow this obviously sick and deranged man, who had reportedly told family and friends that he was Jesus and that the Apocalypse was coming and that he was going to kill, to continue to walk the streets?
How many more Maurice Clemmons’ do we have out there? With or without the Huckabee decision, there were other twists along this man’s path that should have raised a flag or two.
A snippet from the Seattle Times article on Clemmons’s path to destruction”
“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 he was wanted on a fugitive warrant out of Arkansas and was staring at eight felony charges in all out of Washington state.”
Good post Larry. My reading suggests that Huckabee’s leniency toward granting clemency is based on strong Christian values and his belief in forgiveness and redemption. It strikes me that his desire to believe in the inherent goodness of mankind trumped the simple logic of enforcing law and order. I think Laurie has positively nailed this one — if it had been a Democratic governor our good friends at FoxNews would be having a field day.
Mike,
I have no doubt you are correct, Mike. FOX News would probably be all over this if it Huckabee was a Democrat.
Of course, Fox News wasn’t around for the Dukakis campaign…But it’s president certainly was. Remember the Horton Attack ad? Roger Ailes’ work as the media consultant for GHW. And he is quoted as saying (regarding the political advantage that he and Lee Atwater saw in the situation) “the only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it.”
So what did his network do when one of their personalities was on the wrong end of one of these law enforcement vs. governor issues? Send him directly into the No Spin Zone with Bill O’Reilly, so that bill could reassure the public that “this isn’t your fault”.
Perhaps it isn’t, and perhaps Fox News will remember that next time a similar issue comes up with a Democrat. See- I knew I could make you all laugh today.
It is worth noting that Huckabee’s commutation of Clemmons’ sentence did not release him from prison. It only made him eligible for parole and he still had to meet the requirements of the state parole board to get that parole. Some media reports and comments that I have read on other blogs act as if Huckabee bears sole responsibility for Clemmons’ release and that simply is not true.
Certainly, but it also worth questioning whether anyone on the right would be quite so reasoned in defense of a Democratic Governor, if her were the one in the hot seat. Would conservative bloggers and media be reviewing the subtle nuances of the decision then? I highly doubt it. Something to learn from, I think, on many fronts.
Huckabee is a likeable man and I believe a honest politican. That in itself says a lot about him. I had lived in Arkansas during some of the years he was in the governor’s mansion. I didn’t like some of his policies then, but gave him support for the lack of a better candidate. I know have more options open to me and choose not to support the man. His good heart has opened the prison doors to far, far too many people during his years in office. Pardons and clemencys spiked during his years in office to an alarming rate and far exceeded those in surrounding southern states. He would make a great pastor, but was not a great governor and certainly would not be a good command-in-chief.
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So a 107 year sentence is justified for a 16 or 17 year old who basically robbed a woman of her purse and broke into an empty house? I know I have read and seen rapists and murders get less of a sentence. I have seen similar criminal acts by minors not even get prison time but instead get juvenile detention with a sealed record upon release at age 18. Again, at the time, with the information available, this was a no-brainer. Commuting the sentence was justified based on the law. If it weren’t, the judge would not of voiced support publicly as he did and the prosecutor would of raised a stink along with the Arkansas media who hated Huckabee. They all just want to jump on the bash Huck bandwagon now because it makes them feel righteous.
I believe in your assessment of Huckabee as a decent and honest man, but I do have to place quite a bit of blame on him, not for the crime– that is Clemmons responsibility alone, but for starting the process that let this man out. He should never have commuted the sentence down to a parolable sentence. That was the start that got the ball rolling.
Again I am in no way taking any of the blame for Clemmons’ actions away from Clemmons, but this was avoidable and never should have happened.
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I think I will let Kevin McCullough respond for me. He recently wrote an article and makes a good case for this not being Huckabee’s responsibility. You can read his article here. http://townhall.com/columnists/KevinMcCullough/2009/12/06/why_huckabee_aint_dead_yet
This is the most important part of his article (in my opinion)
“As a result, I feel it has fallen to me to re-state the truth–the record as it exists–on the matter.
1. Huckabee offered no “pardon” to Maurice Clemmons.
For the crimes of theft and burglary, Maurice Clemmons at the age of 16 was sentenced to 108 years. In all likelihood, had the same crimes been committed by a white youth from a middle class family, he would’ve received 20 years and been out on probation in under ten. What Governor Huckabee did do was reduce the 108 years to a sentence of 47 years. Shortly thereafter–not simultaneously–Clemmons met the qualifications for parole, and the parole board allowed him to go free, but kept him on probation.
2. Huckabee was not an activist in the Clemmons parole.
Some have claimed that Huckabee sought and pressured the parole board to intercede in the Clemmons case. This is blatantly false. The truth is that the parole board requested the Governor to consider the sentence reduction, as did the presiding judge. Governor Huckabee sought the input from the Attorney General and the prosecutors in the case. Both declined to weigh in. The judge and parole board were both unanimous in the decision to grant parole.
3. Huckabee had nothing to do with Clemmons release.
Following the short period of time that Clemmons had been paroled, he violated his parole by committing another minor offense. As is the case in all probation issues, that violation brought him back to prison to serve time for his crimes. Once back in prison, the Governor ceased to play any role. His sentence was back in effect. Prosecutorial malfeasance and a judge’s lack of action caused Clemmons’ second release from the Arkansas prison system.
If Governor Huckabee’s sentence reduction allowed Clemmons any opportunity to do crime it was to violate his parole. Once violated however, Clemmons was back into the digestive track of the Arkansas justice system. ”
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Thanks, Dominique. It is really easy for people to start throwing Huckabee under the bus, but the plain and simple facts do not bear it out. He is being blamed for something that was not his fault.
What a Bunch of BS!
The bottom lines is there are more than a few people who have been robbed, beaten, raped and/or killed DUE to Huckabees actions!
PERIOD! END OF STORY!
Neil,
It’s easy to throw accusations around, but it’s quite another entirely to know what you are talking about. If you would bother to do your own research, you would find that your blanket statement is not true at all. Yes, Huckabee made a mistake, but it was based on the evidence he had before him at the time. Clemmons bears the responsibility for what has happened, not Mike Huckabee.
Whatever happened to “the buck stops here”?
Well, I think the buck has stopped where it needs to. Yes, those who are elected should be ultimately responsible for the actions and decisions they make while in office. Having said that, Huckabee has taken responsibility for the commutation of Clemmons’ sentence, but he does not share the complete blame.
It is amazing at the stories I have read that are simply incorrect, factually. They accuse Huckabee of pardoning Clemmons, when no such thing happened.