He let the guy out early because he was 17 when he was convicted and clemency was asked and granted. That action taken on its own doesn’t seem like too bad a move.

This is complicated stuff, and therefore makes for good political football. That’s not to stand up for Huckabee, but it’s really easy to hit hard on one set of facts and, as Therese points out, ignore other facts. That sword cuts in both directions, of course; it’s not always a clear-cut liberal-conservative issue.

Anyway, decisions like this often include such noble factors as bed space in the prisons, even in a lock-’em-up state like Texas.

So sorry, Therese and FW Ken, but not that complicated. Some stories refer to Clemmons’ Arkansas crimes as “robbery” but the Seattle Times has said “armed robbery.” I don’t care how old someone is, if he commits armed robbery, he needs to go away for a very long time.

It would be good if the legal system could recognize a sociopath when it sees one and realize that these people cannot be fixed, cannot be reformed, cannot live with society. There’s no perfect system for diagnosing anti-social personality disorder, but systems do exist. When someone leads a life of crime, his whole friggin’ life is devoted to doing crimes, he’s a pretty good candidate for that diagnosis and, rather than believing his pretty words about how he “… succumbed to the peer pressure and the need I had to be accepted by other youth in my new environment and fell in with the wrong crowd and thus began a seven (7) month crime spree which led me to prison,” we might consider his wicked behavior, and remember the only thing lawyers and judges and governors ought to: behavior is truth, behavior is truth, behavior is truth.

The reason I’m not buying it is the justification Huckabee offered. “He lashed out at prosecutors for not doing more to keep prisoners behind bars?” Excuse me? I thought that once prosecutors put someone away, their role was finished. That sounds to me like a man desperately trying to change the subject because he won’t man up and own what he did.

In any event, Huckabee’s politically finished regardless of what his reasons may have been. If he gets the Republican nomination, the Democrats don’t even have to go the full Willie Horton and show the shooter’s face. All they have to do is show the faces of those four cops and Obama wins by an even bigger margin than he won by last time.

I agree the guy shouldn’t have been let free to wander around, but on the other hand, it does sound like he genuinely had mental problems and so prison is probably not the best solution; rather, he should have been in a mental hospital (or whatever they’re called nowadays).

Though it would seem that emptying out the mental hospitals á la “care in the community” happens in the U.S. too, huh?

Prison may not be the best solution, but it’s a solution.

TEc granted clemency to Pike and Spong. Look how well that worked out.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams granted clemency to TEc. Look how well that’s working out.

I still have my altered Monopoly “Get Out of Jail Free, Compliments of Mike Dukakis” card (printed up by the College Republicans and distributed nationwide before Parker Brothers shut them down) posted on my refrigerator.

Willie Horton was the number 1 thing that lost Dukakis the election and saved America.

Doesn’t matter what rationale Huckabee comes up with, he’s now history as a viable presdential candidate.

Fuinseoig

We did “care in the community” back in the 70s in this country. I spent much of the 80s and 90s working to improved systems of care for those folks. It wasn’t and isn’t perfect, but a number of my old clients live comfortably in normal housing in my neighborhood and the next neighborhood north. I worked in state facilities in the 70s and 80s and well-remember the back wards. There was a lot of “dumping”, but a lot of lives were improved, too. Again, it’s more complex than evening news soundbites.

My point above wasn’t that people shouldn’t be locked up (since locking people up is part of what I do for a living). It was that we usually hear only the facts of a case that support a particular perspective. Was Huckabee too lenient? Maybe, maybe not and I don’t expect to find out in the traditional mainstream media.

Mike Huckabee has a good sense of humor and a quick wit. I see him more as an entertainer/preacher type. He has a good gig at Fox and should stay there. He reminds me of Matt Millen. Matt was hired by ESPN as a football analyst yet his 8 year presidency over the Detroit Lions was the worst 8 years in Lion franchise history. Millen’s legacy of poor draft choices continues to plague the Lions and this particular long-suffering Lion fan. I believe this horrible episode in Washington has at least spared us of the possibility Huckabee will ever have the red phone in his hand.

His “lengthy prison sentence” was 99 years. That tells us what the people involved in the case thought about the crime he had committed. They knew the guy was a sociopath and wanted him put away to protect society.

I don’t recall the details, but it seems to me that another Huckabee-released felon went to Missouri and raped and killed a woman. The 99-year sentence on this guy indicates, as Perpetua says, that his wasn’t a trivial crime. Huckabee’s a pastor and entertainer, and shouldn’t be President. I felt that he was running in 2008 to be chief pastor rather than Commander in Chief. I hate to have my judgment vindicated with the lives of four Washington police officers, though.

I voted for Mike Huckabee in the 2008 Virginia GOP presidential primary. I’m now embarrased that I did so.

Gov. Huckabee recently said that he’s leaning against a run for president in 2012. That was before the shooting happened. He would be wise to change “leaning against” to “definitely not” in light of this development.

I’m sure Mark Shea has Huck’s back…

“His “lengthy prison sentence” was 99 years. That tells us what the people involved in the case thought about the crime he had committed.”

I remember a time in Texas where juries were handing down 400 and 500 year sentences to make sure the Parole Board got the message.

Compassion is not meant to substitute for justice but to supplement it. Huckabee seems not to understand well enough that a ruler’s first obligation is to see that the law is respected and the innocent are protected. After that is reasonably accomplished, then mercy can be given to the guilty, not before.

Wasn’t it Mr. Huckabee’s response that the only recommendation he received on the commutation request was from the judge and that the judge recommended in favor of commuting Clemmon’s sentence?