Update: Mike Huckabee's history of commuted sentences under scrutiny after Maurice Clemmons story

Maurice Clemmons' sentence was commuted by Huckabee.  AP Photo

The right of a President or Governor to grant a pardon or commuted sentence is one of the few unchecked powers in government.  Nearly every other move of the executive has some form of "check" in the checks and balance system but a Governor can grant a commuted sentence with absolutely no limits from the legislative or executive branch.  The case of Maurice Clemmons may make some states reexamine this unchecked power of the executive.

Maurice Clemmons is the "person of interest" in the shooting of four police officers from town of Lakewood in the State of Washington.  Has been convicted of multiple felonies in the past and was actually sentenced to a sixty-year sentence in the State of Arkansas but subsequently had that sentence commuted by then-Governor Mike Huckabee.  Huckabee cited Clemmons young age (17) at the time of the crime but he is now being criticized for what seems to be a questionable exercise of his authority at the time.  Clemmons had been convicted burglary and had attempted to assault the guards holding multiple times before his sentence was commuted.  The prosecutors in the case urged the Governor not to grant the commutation.

The Huffington Post has now revealed new details which shed more light on Huckabee's past practice of granting pardons and commuted sentences.  The Huffington Post cites an Arkansas Leader study which showed that Huckabee freed more prisoners during his term than six neigboring states combined.  Another study by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette found that 9% of the people freed by Huckabee ended up returning to prison in some manner.

Perhaps most damning in the story is the allegation that Huckabee freed many prisoners because the prisoners in question had "found Jesus."  According to an ABC story some of the prosecutors felt that Huckabee (a deeply religious man himself) was moved by various evangelical leaders who made pleas on behalf of prisoners who had converted while in prison.  No details have emerged on whether Maurice Clemmons experienced such a conversion while in jail.  Before the recent shootings Clemmons evidently came to believe that he was Jesus in the flesh and that the world was going to end soon.

Many actually believe that there are too few instances of commuted sentences and pardons as the justice system does make many errors in assigning too harsh a sentence and Governors (other than Huckabee) fear having their political career end over one wrong move.  Unfortunately for any prisoners currently being held under an unjust sentence the Maurice Clemmons saga may dash any hopes they had of executive forgiveness.  At the very least the practice of executive leaders being able to unilaterally grant such forgiveness in the criminal justice system may be revisited on the state and national level.