Huckabee: "many people of color who are uneducated & living in abject poverty are civil & honest"

Washington State Tragedy
by Mike Huckabee
12/01/2009

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6. Religion had nothing to do with the commutation. It’s been erroneously expressed that my own personal faith or the claims of faith of the inmate factored into my decision. That is simply not true and nothing in the record even suggests it. The reasons were straightforward -- a unanimous recommendation from the board, support from a trial judge and no objections from officials in a case that involved a 16 year old sentenced to a term that was exponentially longer than similar cases and certainly longer than had he been white, upper middle class, and represented by effective counsel who would have clearly objected to the sentencing. (His race, economic status, or education level are not excuses for his behavior because many people of color who are uneducated and living in abject poverty are civil, trustworthy, and honest to a fault and many well-educated, wealthy, white people are dirtbags -- think Bernie Madoff).

more:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34636

"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."

What a moran!

In Huck's native Arkie culture, that statement would be considerded very "librul".

in all honesty blame him for what that man did. Huckabee gave a young 16 old another chance. Somewhere a long the way, that angry young man turned into an angry adult man. He didn't make the best of another chance. The blame falls squarely on his shoulders.

entire #6 entry as posted here. In context he is obviously pointing out the excessive burden placed on black, lower-class defendants compared to white, middle or upper-class defendants.

I have been absolutely astounded by the crap people here are giving him for doing the right thing. If this man was still in prison as was originally intended, we'd all be up in arms about the racist, classist hatefulness of keeping a 16yo behind bars for . . .what was it 99 years... for burglary.

I really hate to see when DUers are more intent on going after a person on the other side, than focusing on the issues.

"But sadly, Arkansas has had numerous instances of disproportionate sentencing in which a probation and fine would be meted out to white upper class kids whose parents were able to obtain the services of excellent defense attorneys, while young black males committing the same crimes and represented by public defenders would end up with inexplicably long prison terms. Blacks comprise 15% of the state’s population, but 50% of the inmate population, some of which is due to the fact that their sentences are often longer and they are less likely to be paroled."

That puts it into a somewhat different light, I think. Mr. Huckabee gave him a second chance, with the recommendation of a board of other folks. The kid blew it. Not Huckabee. And I don't like Huckabee, either.

In the worst case scenario, if you were able to parrot Huckabee's religious beliefs convincingly back at him, that's going to be a huge component of his decision making process.

In the best(?) case scenario, if you don't at least mention how you've changed with help from God - not Allah, Buddha, or a general reading of other religions philosophy - he's not going to give you the time of the day.

TlalocW

Joe Conason
Monday, Nov 30, 2009 17:31 PST
Mike Huckabee's fatally bad judgment
Brutality by another Huck-pardoned criminal suggests the 2012 GOP hopeful listened more to pastors than prosecutors


If clemency for Maurice Clemmons were the only fatal error committed by Mike Huckabee as governor of Arkansas, he might be able to shift blame to the state's law enforcement system and even run for president again in 2012. Yet the Clemmons commutation that he granted nine years ago is only one among several cases that raise serious questions about Huckabee's judgment.

Clemmons, the fugitive suspect in the shooting deaths of four police officers, was hit in the torso by return fire from one of the cops who later died, he escaped.

Having accumulated five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington, according to the Seattle Times, Clemmons was undoubtedly a danger to the community who ought to have been returned to prison long ago by law enforcement authorities. Only days before the police shooting, he was released on $150,000 bail from a jail in Pierce County, Wash., where he was incarcerated on charges of raping a child.

As Huckabee suggested in a statement released on Monday, courts and law enforcement agencies in Washington should probably share the blame for Sunday's carnage. "Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, " the statement said, referring to Clemmons, "it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State."

In short, Huckabee was arguing, the killings attributed to Clemmons were not Huckabee's fault. Certainly they were not his fault alone. But this incident has revived memories of other decisions he made that later led to terrible consequences. The damage to his political future will hinge on how deeply news organizations now delve into those cases -- and the bizarre faith-based rationale behind his use of the clemency and pardon powers of the governor.

Huckabee has proudly declared on many occasions that he disdains the separation of church and state, insisting that his strict Baptist piety should serve as the bedrock of public policy. Nowhere in his record as governor was the influence of religious zeal felt more heavily than in the distribution of pardons and commutations, as his own explanations have indicated. During those years he granted more commutations and pardons than any governor during the previous four decades, many of them surely justified as a response to excessive penalties under the state's draconian narcotics laws. But others were deeply controversial, especially because so many of his acts of mercy appeared to depend on interventions by fellow Baptist preachers and by inmate professions of renewed Christian faith.

No doubt word spread among the prison population that the affable governor was vulnerable to appeals from convicts who claimed to be born again. Clemmons too was among those who benefited from Huckabee's tendency to believe such pious testimonials. "I come from a very good Christian family and I was raised much better than my actions speak," he explained in his clemency application in 2000. "I'm still ashamed to this day for the shame my stupid involvement in these crimes brought upon my family's name ... I have never done anything good for God, but I've prayed for him to grant me in his compassion the grace to make a start. Now, I'm humbly appealing to you for a brand new start."

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http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2009/11/30/mike_huckabee/index.html