Huckabee is tough on crime.

[Dave]

So this 17 year old kid with a HUGE rap sheet was sentenced to 95 years in prison in 1989 for a host of charges, including robberies, burglaries, thefts and bringing a gun to school. During a pre-trial hearing, the kid hid a piece of metal in his sock, media reports at the time said. Before the start of another hearing, he grabbed a padlock off his holding cell and threw it at a court bailiff. He missed, and the lock hit his mother, who had come to bring him clothes.

After serving only 11 years, Governor (then) Huckabee commuted the sentence, citing the kid's age as a mitigating factor.

Less than a year after his release he was arrested for aggravated robbery and theft and taken back to jail on violating his parole. But never prosecuted because of a technicality.

Since then he's punched a cop in the face, shown erratic behavior that is indicative of mental instability. And now he's finally snapped. And now, after serving several months in jail on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child, he was released on bond. That was 6 days before he walked into a cafe, turned and shot 4 police dead.

I place the blame square on Huckabee. The fact that he commuted the sentence without looking into the situation himself was irresponsible. Now he's blaming the criminal justice system and trying to shunt as much of the blame away from himself as he can.

This is not a Republican/Democrat thing, but if the Republicans still back this guy I never - ever - want to hear anything about how tough on crime they are again.

 

[Shegokigo]

So this is that Washington Police murder thing I've been hearing about on the news all morning?

Huckabee..... idiot.

 

[DarkAudit]

It's not Huckabee's first fuckup with parolees.

Dems should Willie Horton the shit out of the GOP with this.

 

[Espy]

While I like a handfull of his stances on issues Huckabee has never been a true conservative so this kind of crap from him doesn't surprise me at all.

I wouldn't expect to see him run for anything again though, and honestly, the guy's record shows so much corruption he won't get far I expect, should he try.

 

[ElJuski]

Fuckabee

 

[Armadillo]

Fuckabee

 

[ElJuski]

+10 if you know where that quote comes from

 

[Armadillo]

No earthly clue. I'm looking forward to finding out, though.

 

[Dave]

I Huckabee

 

[Krisken]

I Huckabee

I laughed. Thanks Dave

 

[makare]

I dont really see what he did wrong, besides not being clairvoyant. Sending a 17 year old to jail for life is usually unnecessarily punitive. This kid just turned out to be evil.. usually they are just youthful fuckups and go on to have relatively normal lives.

I guess I don't have all the facts. Were there incidences in jail that should have led him to believe that the boy was not rehabilitated? If not I would have commuted the sentence too.

It would be a horrible thing if because of this case they stopped commuting sentences in cases like this.. it would be a complete bastardization of justice.

but like i said, i dont have all the facts.

 

[DarkAudit]

He let him out. That's all that matters to the opposition. From that moment on, anything that happened, the blood would be on Huckabee's hands.

Who do we have to blame for that? Roger Ailes. The head of Fox Noise. He's the one who gave us Willie Horton.

 

[Seraphyn]

What makare said basically. If the guy was a model jailbird it doesn't seem wrong to commute an overly harsh sentence. A shame it turned out like this though.

 

[Dave]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/30/washington.suspect/index.html

16 year olds can be bad people, too. And I wonder how many go in front of a parole board and say they weren't sorry that they did it. Of course he said these things.

 

[makare]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/30/washington.suspect/index.html

16 year olds can be bad people, too. And I wonder how many go in front of a parole board and say they weren't sorry that they did it. Of course he said these things.

So what then, no chance for forgiveness just a life in jail on principle?

That is not a country or a world I would want to live in.

 

[Dave]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/30/washington.suspect/index.html

16 year olds can be bad people, too. And I wonder how many go in front of a parole board and say they weren't sorry that they did it. Of course he said these things.

So what then, no chance for forgiveness just a life in jail on principle?

That is not a country or a world I would want to live in.[/QUOTE]

And a world where they let out every guy in prison who said he felt bad and wanted a new start would be anarchy.

He had a 97 year sentence for a reason.

 

[Espy]

He had a 97 year sentence for a reason.

I can see letting someone like that, with that long of a sentence, out early due to them being on good behavior/reformed, etc. Early like, 30 years instead of 97.

 

[makare]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/30/washington.suspect/index.html

16 year olds can be bad people, too. And I wonder how many go in front of a parole board and say they weren't sorry that they did it. Of course he said these things.

So what then, no chance for forgiveness just a life in jail on principle?

That is not a country or a world I would want to live in.[/QUOTE]

And a world where they let out every guy in prison who said he felt bad and wanted a new start would be anarchy.

He had a 97 year sentence for a reason.[/QUOTE]

Yeah the legislature made arbitrary sentence requirements. It has nothing to do with justice.

It's just sad how much people want to punish these days. 25 years ago the sentence for manslaughter was 5 years. Now it is life in prison. Life in prison for a crime that is most likely not going to be repeated by someone who may have just fucked up once in his life. It's ridiculous. People bay against the death penalty, a life sentence steals someones life just as well.

 

[SpecialKO]

I don't think I can blame Huckabee for this. If the parole board recommended the commuted sentence, it doesn't seem weird that Huckabee would do so. He wasn't elected to be a criminal psychologist for that, he had criminal psychologists to advice him on stuff like that, and in this case, they recommended the release.

For that matter, he was arrested, sent to prison for 3 years, and then released later.

Failure of the local judicial system? Absolutely.

Huckabee's fault? Though it looks bad (and probably feels awful), I really don't think this is his fault.

 

[Seraphyn]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/30/washington.suspect/index.html

16 year olds can be bad people, too. And I wonder how many go in front of a parole board and say they weren't sorry that they did it. Of course he said these things.

I get what you mean, but if the parole board gives an ok, I don't see how Huckabee was in the wrong here. It's not like he has a veto on it (right?) and can just get people out of jail whenever he wants and feels like it.
Also, it does come across that while in jail he behaved well enough to be able to come before a parole board and be judged anew by them. If it then seems that the convict has changed, leaving him rotting in prison won't be doing him any good.

If anything went wrong it's the parole board psychologist for not seeing the true mental state of the guy.

 

[DarkAudit]

You people are looking in the wrong direction. You're not thinking politically. Huckabee was just as at fault as Michael Dukakis was, if not more. It doesn't matter what happened in the governor's office. In the eyes of the public, it will be made Huckabee's fault, and by extension the GOP's.

 

[Covar]

DarkAudit if you don't spell Microsoft Micro$oft I will be sorely disappointed.