A Mississippi judge's order has bothered two D.C. area returning citizens.
The judge, Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green, blocked the release of 21 inmates still serving time when their pardons were announced and who remained incarcerated, and ordered five others who already had been freed to appear for a hearing later in January.
Ramos Ortega and Katherine Jones are both returning ctizens who live in Washington, D.C. (Ortega, in Mt. Pleasant, and Jones, in Cleveland Park). Both did time for drug possession, were released and completed their probations successfully. Jones also went into rehab and has seven years clean.
"I don't know a lot about Barbour," said Ortega, "but I thought it was a good idea to pardon people."
Jones said, "I was shocked and surprised that Barbour had pardoned so many people. It's not uncommon for an out-going governor to release or pardon so many people, but I guess, just the image Mississippi has at being a conservative place and in the Deep South, you wouldn't expect that many people to get pardoned."
She added, "Whatever new image people had of Mississippi, the judge blocking the release of the ones still locked up only shows how much the status-quo is against progressive moves aimed at trying to make people whole."
The judge acted hours after Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood had sought the injunction to prevent the early release of clemency recipients.
Barbour hasn't officially spoken in reference to pardons, but the Governor's Office has reported that only a small group of those pardoned were incarcerated. "90 percent of them were no longer in prison when the pardons were granted," the offiee said in a statement.
"The pardons were intended to allow them to find gainful employment or acquire professional licenses as well as hunt and vote," the Mississippi governor said in a statement. "My decision about clemency was based upon the recommendation of the Parole Board in more than 90 per cent of the cases."
State Attorney General Hood (who's Mississippi's only state-wide elected Democrat) believes that some of them did not meet the requirements of the state constitution. A Barbour - Hood disagreement was nothing new. They often squared off during Barbour's two terms in office.
"Knowing that Hood is a Democrat and challenging the pardons of these men and women is what really surprised me," Jones said
Hood added that many of the pardoned inmates – including the five who worked at the governor's mansion – did not meet the constitutional requirement of having published notice of their request for clemency in local newspapers where the crimes were committed.
The injunction stands until Department of Corrections provides documentation of the required notification.
"This isn't a partisan issue," according to Hood. "Either you followed the constitution or you didn't. The pardons are a slap in the face to everyone in law enforcement and Gov. Barbour should be ashamed."
Barbour is a conservative who has generally taken a tough stance on crime at times. But he also signed legislation in 2008 that made thousands of nonviolent inmates eligible to be considered for parole after serving a portion of their sentence. That legislation was aimed at easing crowded conditions in the state's prisons and saving money.
The brother of NFL legend Brett Farve, four men convicted of murder and another convicted of armed robbery, all serving life sentences, who worked at the governor's mansion cleaning vehicles, waiting tables and performing other domestic duties, were just a few of those pardoned.
Those that have been released through their pardon must contact prison officials on a daily basis as their fate is adjudicated.
Haley Barbour served eight years as governor. Barbour, a former National Republican Committee chairman, had considered seeking his party's nomination for president in 2012 but said a White House bid would have claimed a decade of his life considering the long campaign followed by up to eight years in office.
Prior to this moment, Barbour had issued pardons of some kind to 222 people during his 8 years in office. Of that 222 who have been granted full pardons include shoplifters, rapists, burglars and embezzlers.
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