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* On October 20, 1987, Horton was sentenced in Maryland to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years. The sentencing judge refused to return Horton to Massachusetts, saying, "I'm not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released. This man should never draw a breath of free air again."
* Variations of this story were repeated on several occasions in Massachusetts. Confessed rapist John Zukoski, who had brutally beaten and murdered a 44 year-old woman in 1970, became eligible for furloughs and was eventually paroled in 1986. A few months later he was arrested and indicted yet again for beating and raping a woman.
* The Massachusetts inmate furlough program actually began under Governor Francis Sargent in 1972. But in 1976 Governor Dukakis vetoed a bill to ban furloughs for first-degree murderers. It would, he said, "Cut the heart out of inmate rehabilitation."
* The program, in essence, released killers on an "honor system" to see if they would stay out of trouble. On the average, convicts who had been sentenced to "life without parole" spent fewer than 19 years in prison. By March 1987, Dukakis had commuted the sentences of 28 first-degree murderers.
* Of over 80 Massachusetts convicts listed as escaped and still at large, only four had actually "escaped." The rest simply walked away from furloughs, prerelease centers and other minimum-security programs. These convicts included murderers, rapists, armed robbers and drug dealers.
* First-degree murderer Armand Therrien was transferred from a medium security prison to a minimum-security one, which made him eligible for a work-release program. He walked off and vanished in December 1987.
* When citizens began to protest, Dukakis and his aides defended the program relentlessly. One commissioner stated that furloughs were a "management tool" to help the prisons. Unless a convict had hope of parole, he argued, "we would have a very dangerous population in an already dangerous system." But, critics wondered, if armed guards can't control dangerous killers inside locked cells, how are unarmed citizens supposed to deal with them?
* It was through the efforts of a grassroots organization, Citizens Against Unsafe Society, that the issue was finally brought before the people. With mounting pressure from his own aides to sign a bill ending the program - for fear that it would hurt his presidential campaign - Dukakis signed the legislation in April of this year.
So, no, there are no substantive parallels here other than superficial ones. Mike Dukakis vehemently defended the existing program of allowing weekend furloughs for murderers calling it a necessary part of "inmate rehabilitation" and a good "management tool" for the prisons. No such program exists in MA today so the judge's decision was entirely her own and Mitt Romney has clearly denounced this decision and has called for her resignation. Mike Dukakis was culpable for Willie Horton because it was the Dukakis administration's policy to allow murderers weekend furloughs; a policy they defended vigorously until they saw that it was hurting his presidential bid. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, had a single, former employee make a extremely poor decision. The two situations are very, very different and this story will, in all likelihood, be dead and gone by the end of the week next week.
What a perfect description of Mitt Romney!
Yeah, I posted a similar article on this yesterday - Romney had no idea that this judge he was appointing was a closeted moonbat - there was nothing in her background to indicated she was otherwise.
I do hope Romney got ahead of BOR and is going on his show or something, ticked me off BOR trying to make it “a moment”...
".. However, there’s a growing chorus of voices speculating Romney push polled himself. “I smell a dirty trick. I suspect a pro-Romney motive to inoculate against future use of the religious issue and to breed sympathy for Romney … a 20-minute call is the work of an amateur. The long call is designed to get ALL the negatives out, to put them off limits for future attacks,” Roger Stone — a master of Republican dirty tricks — told The Politico’s Jonathan Martin. Stone pointed out that Robert F. Kennedy was behind anti-Catholic campaign tricks — calls and literature — to help get the first Catholic president elected. An anonymous website attacking Fred Thompson with ties to the Romney consultants in South Carolina earlier this cycle suggests such earnestness may not be below Romney campaigners..."
With the visceral hatred that some Fredheads, Paulbots, and the lone remaining Alan Keyes supporter in the entire country feel for Mr. Romney, this story will continue forever. The fact that there is no basis or justification for the story to continue will have no bearing on how these people behave.
Bill
It may not have been Romney’s policy to release dangerous psychopaths on their own recognizance, but he should have known that the woman he was appointing believed in restorative justice. A Democrat on was quoted in an article on NRO, saying that Tavares would not have murdered the WA couple if Romney had enacted legislation for rehabilitation of prisoners.
It is not just the appointment of a liberal judge, it is the fact that Romney made no effort to reinforce the rule of law in Mass. The Seattle Timers reported this morning that Mass. authorities had asked the WA authorities to keep an eye on Tavares, but that warrant did allow for extradition. Mass. didn’t want the guy back!
Translation:
From: Captain’s Quarter
To: Anti-Mitt Freepers
Message: Get a clue.