By 1990, when he was 18 year old, Clemmons had been sentenced to the 108 years in prison for eight felony charges from those teenage years in Arkansas. The total prison term stemmed from multiple sentences, some of which were concurrent and others consecutive The largest sentencing came in 1990, when he was given a 60-year prison term for breaking into an Arkansas state trooper's home and stealing about $6,700-worth of items, including a gun. Clemmons was also sentenced in 1989 to 35 years in prison for robbing a woman at midnight in the parking lot of a Little Rock hotel bar. Clemmons pretended to have a gun in his pocket and threatened to shoot her if she did not give him her purse. When she reportedly responded, "Well, why don't you just shoot?", Clemmons punched her in the head and ran off with the purse, which contained $16 and a credit card. This is the incident that Huckabee talks about Clemmons getting such a long sentence for just stealing $16 dollars. Among Clemmons other sentencings were six years for weapon possession based on an arrest when he was a junior at Hall High School for carrying a .25-caliber pistol on school property; and eight years for burglary, theft and probation in Pulaski County on September 9, 1989. All in all Clemmons was not to be eligible for parole until 2015 or later.
This is the individual and set of criminal circumstances that Huckabee says any of us would have commuted. I disagree...with this string of crimes, and particularly his last one where he stole the large amount of material and the weapon (and being known for being arrested for either carrying weapons or claiming to while committing his crimes), I would have stood by the long sentence to keep this increasingly violent person off of our streets.
Take your crazy talk somewhere else...we're all set here.
Come to think of it, you'd look good in an orange jump suit yourself.
Live by the bleeding heart, die by the bleeding heart. You didn’t open the cell door, you just unlocked it? Look at it this way, Mikey. Clemmons only killed your career, not your sons and daughter.
Too little, too late. The Huckster is burnt pond scum.
Thousands of feral 16 year old males need to be executed in this country. No criminal, no crime. Criminals cause crime.
And for many freepers, Mike, you are who we *knew* you were. A total moron.
According to this:
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2009/11/maurice_clemmons_record.aspx
He wasn’t just a ‘kid’ who committed one or two crimes. Judges don’t hand out 108 years to just anyone.
“....posting bail in Washington on charges of child rape”
I think that’s the real story here.
“Here was a kid at age 16 had committed a burgarly and a robbery and got a 108 year sentence,” Huckabee said Tuesday night at the Right to Life annual banquet on Purdue’s campus. “The judge thought it was unfair. The parole board did and recommended to me to commute his sentence. I didn’t let him loose because I didn’t have that power as a governor. I commutted his sentence to 47 years giving him the oppurtunity to be parole eligible.”
Seems reasonable.
What has not been habilitated cannot be rehabilitated.
At least we do not have to worry about this buffoon in 2012(at least on the gop tkt)
Clemmons isn’t the same person he was two days ago. He’s dead.
Keep digging, D-bag. . . Even his show is insipid. Everything about this guy is filled to the brim with s$it.
“Huckabee: Clemmons isn’t same person”
Well, I’d have to agree, since the current form is perforated multiple times and is room-temp.
I’ve got a buck that says Clemmons converted to Islam in prison. I’m just guessing but ... any takers?
I agree this has badly damaged Huckabee’s political future (if he even had one), and I wouldn’t have supported him for the GOP nomination. But I think it’s a bit over the top to imply Huckabee had bad intentions by giving clemency to the guy. He didn’t pardon him. He shortened the sentence from 108 years to 47 years. Clemmons was paroled — a process that does not involved the governor in AR.
Not a fan of Huckabee here, but it’s important to keep things in perspective.
Just ask the families of those cops.
These are Huckabee’s own words. If he gets into office again he will set free more violent criminals. Clemmons isn't the only violent offender Huckabee set free. He pardoned more violent offenders than any other governor. He should allowed to hold any public office again.
What a load of crap he isn’t the same person, he was convicted in your state of 5 crimes that would not have allowed him to even be considered for parole until 2048. Your clemency actions helped put this animal back on the streets.
I don’t support you Huck for a pleathora of reasons, this particular action is way way way down on the list. The fact you are a lying slimeball, which you are proving once again with statements like this one, are far far higher on the list the clemency crap itself.