Thursday, December 17, 2009

Radley Balko pokes around Gov. Barbour's pardons

Radley Balko's got a piece in Slate entitled "Haley Barbour's Bizarre Pardon Record."  I don't have the time to delve into it here, with it being the holiday season and the reopening of the King Edward, but I highly recommend the read, and I want your thoughts on it.  Especially interesting to me is the apparent abrupt change in Gov. Barbour's policy on never giving pardons.

5 comments:

Dausuul said...

First thing that comes to mind is that there's more here than meets the eye. Gov. Barbour hasn't pardoned anyone the whole time he's been in office... and now he breaks that policy for five violent criminals, who all just happened to work on his house? I'm not much for conspiracy theories as a rule, but I can't help wondering if they saw something the Governor would rather keep quiet.

Freedonian said...

Does anyone know the races of all those that received a pardon from Haley?

I think I see a disturbing pattern.

Unknown said...

Apparently, none were black if that's what you're asking, Freedonian. Coincidentally, all the men who've gotten out of prison recently due to DNA are black, I believe. And thanks again to Radley for megaphoning out this story that we did last year pointing out that Barbour's pardons and such were overwhelmingly of men who brutally murdered wives and girlfriends. I'm still shocked by it; I'm not a big Barbour fan, but I simply did not suspect he'd do something like this. Neither did many of his supporters, it seems.

Oh, and Radley's new column will be in the JFP Daily today as every Tuesday. We consider him an honorary Mississippian at this point!

Freedonian said...

Thanks, Donna. That is what I am curious about.

A DNA exoneration is the result of science being introduced to correct a wrongful conviction, but it is still a difficult process in a post-conviction environment. Rep John Mayo on his blog at the C-L says that he is introducing legislation in the next session to make the process easier, we all need to help get this passed.

cyber joe said...

Are there any racial patterns in the cases in which Hayne and West testified as experts?

"The Mississippi Innocence Project and the Innocence Project in New York are looking at hundreds of other noncapital cases involving Hayne and West."