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Haley Barbour pardons: Why were the forgiven so disproportionately white?
Christian Science Monitor ^ | January 21, 2012 | Patrik Jonsson

Posted on 01/21/2012 7:59:23 AM PST by Zakeet

The sheer number of pardons handed out by outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour – over 200 – left many Mississippians in shock. What may not have been so surprising is that white prisoners were four times more likely than black ones to get the gubernatorial benefit of the doubt.

Out of a total of 222 acts of clemency given by Barbour during his tenure – 156 of which Attorney General Jim Hood has subsequently argued may be constitutionally invalid because of public notice violations – two-thirds benefited white prisoners. Meanwhile, two-thirds of the state's prison population is black.

On its face, the disparities immediately raise questions about whether the Mississippi pardon system is inherently racist. Some critics have called on the US Justice Department to investigate Barbour's pardons on the racial disparities alone, since such broad inequalities could point to a violation of the Constitution's equal protection clause.

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: barbour; mississippi; pardon; race
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To: Joe the Pimpernel

You have to look at the serious side. Most of those they kill are black too.


21 posted on 01/21/2012 9:50:28 AM PST by Venturer
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To: GOPsterinMA

Maybe Barbour was afraid he would be so attractive as a potential running mate that the only way to be sure that the Presidential nominee couldn’t blackmail him into accepting a place on the ticket was to do something utterly indefensible like this.


22 posted on 01/21/2012 9:55:51 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: AnAmericanMother
According to the article, "black-white incarceration disparities" are 3-1 in Mississippi and 13-1 in Iowa.

Obviously that doesn't mean that 13 out of every 14 prisoners in Iowa are black, but rather that a black person in Iowa is 13 times more likely to be in prison than a white person in Iowa.

Surprising that a Yankee publication like the Christian Science Monitor would let slip a fact showing that Iowans are more racist than Mississippians.

23 posted on 01/21/2012 10:08:25 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus

That’s an intresting perspective.


24 posted on 01/21/2012 10:21:57 AM PST by GOPsterinMA (Farewell sweet Rick, we barely knew ye...)
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To: Zakeet

Haley Barbour’s pardon business has the stink of Huckabee’s debacle years ago with religious reasons given for issuing the pardons.


25 posted on 01/21/2012 10:34:46 AM PST by AMitchum
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To: AMitchum

Maybe Roger Clinton and Tony Rodham came along and dropped some big bags of cash in Barbour’s lap.


26 posted on 01/21/2012 10:55:29 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Zakeet

Had it been a black governor pardoning the same percentage of black criminals vs. white, it would have been a non-issue. No story would have ever run about it.


27 posted on 01/21/2012 1:48:39 PM PST by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
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To: SampleMan
37% of Mississippi's population makes up 66% of its felons.

If you tweak those numbers to reality, black males of an appropriate age range are probably the predominant factor in the prison population; that should be less than 20% of the population committing 66% of the felonies.

I truly feel for the decent, God-fearing black people who are tarred by simply looking like part of the problem.

28 posted on 01/21/2012 1:57:02 PM PST by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
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To: JimRed

I truly feel for the decent, God-fearing black people who are tarred by simply looking like part of the problem.


Unfortunately, we permitted the Left to reorganize their racist power structure and doctrines after we defeated their last system of racial inequality and mob violence.

We permit them to continue to paint tribes of race with race doctrines and speak in race voice. Blacks vote for them in the vast majority, because they kinda like this racist shake down and violent business when the shoe is on the other foot. As Obammy’s Holder explained in regards to the Philadelphia NOI voting rights problem - in so many words - whitey don’t get no voting rights when we’s in power...

So we still talk and see in terms of skin because we have been unable to defeat the left’s race based social and political structure. I used to be very upset about it because I wanted a society beyond race but I decided it will never change. The elite won’t ever allow it to change.

Divide and conquer is their key to total power and money. They learned it from the Brits - it is the way they took over countries - perferring one tribe and often a minority over the ones needed to be weakened and under control. Pit one against other and then act like the benevolent referee. They will never let it go and the people - in all their colors - are too stupid and corrupt to make them stop.


29 posted on 01/21/2012 2:14:00 PM PST by SaraJohnson
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To: Clintonfatigued; GOPsterinMA

To be fair he was never gonna be Prez or VP. If he wanted a cabinet post though he can forget about it.

And if one of them kills again I hope he can forget about sleeping at night.


30 posted on 01/21/2012 6:49:44 PM PST by Impy (Don't call me red.)
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To: Impy; Clintonfatigued

Agreed! He’s done. Now if he was a Kennedy on the other hand...


31 posted on 01/21/2012 6:53:29 PM PST by GOPsterinMA (Farewell sweet Rick, we barely knew ye...)
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To: AMitchum; Boomer One; dixiechick2000

nail on head....and i am a native and all my family there

no one i know there defends it....but they do give the reason you state redemption....forgiveness

beats me....some if the pardons i get....the lessee ones

but beating your wife to death with an axe handle...and she was not caught cheating

that is hard to figger


32 posted on 01/22/2012 1:05:38 AM PST by wardaddy (I am a social conservative. My political party left me(again). They can go to hell in a bucket.)
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To: wardaddy; AMitchum; Boomer One

Read this...

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20120122/NEWS/201220353/Hood-hit-pardon-battle?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

“The governor (granted pardons) based on advice and action by the attorney general’s office - that’s what the attorney general never told Judge Green or the press when he was making this big announcement damning the governor,” Fortner said.”


33 posted on 01/23/2012 11:48:00 PM PST by dixiechick2000 (Proud barbarian TEA Party SOB and an evil Capitalist.)
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To: WKB

I meant to include you in my above post.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2835803/posts?page=33#33


34 posted on 01/23/2012 11:49:44 PM PST by dixiechick2000 (Proud barbarian TEA Party SOB and an evil Capitalist.)
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