You Can't Predict the Future if You Don't Open Your Eyes

Jessa wrote an article on her blog about a man who killed four police officers in Seattle Washington before he was shot to death by police. His name was Maurice Clemmons and he was 37 years old. Jessa said that this was very sad that the world is coming to situations like this; manhunts and shootouts are common place. I have to agree that this is very sad and I wondered if this incident could have been prevented. I decided to do a little digging.

As it turns out, Clemmons was sentenced to 108 years in prison in Arkansas for an unnamed reason when he was only 16 years old. He was described as violent and “mean” according to W.A. McCormick, a deputy prosecuting attorney at the time. He was such a security risk that he had to be shackled to his chair in court and deputies stood near him to keep him from trying anything.

Inside prison, he was just as bad. Larry Jegley, the prosecutor who put Clemmons away told of his conduct: "Failure to obey, engaging in sexual activity, possession or introduction of drugs, firearms…"

McCormick wrote to the parole board several times stating that Clemmons should never be paroled. He strongly believed that Clemmons should never be released from prison.

However, Arkansas governor of the time Mike Huckabee released him on parole after 11 years of his sentence was served. Huckabee had this to say about the matter: "I looked at the file. Every bit of it. And here was a case where a guy had been given 108 years. Now, if you think a 108-year sentence is an appropriate sentence for a 16-year-old for the crimes he committed, then you should run for governor of Arkansas."

Huckabee says that he knew all about how violent and aweful Clemmons was. He said he read about how dangerous and mean he was. But he released Clemmons on parole because he didn’t think it was fair for a 16 year old to be locked up for the rest of his life.

Then, four police officers were shot and killed. Four families are suffering now because of Huckabee’s choice.

"I take full responsibility for my actions of nine years ago. I acted on the facts presented to me in 2000. If I could have possibly known what Clemmons would do nine years later, I obviously would have made a different decision…” Um hello! The facts presented to you screamed murderer in the making. Stupidity isn’t an excuse that those families will except very easily.

The governor of any state should not be given that much power. It seems like everyone but the governor knew that Clemmons was a public risk. Why was ignorance allowed to make the final decision?



Article Sources:

http://jessahuber.blogspot.com/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/03/washington.clemmons.huckabee/index.html?iref=allsearch



Picture Sources:

http://mandarin.about.com/od/vocabularylists/tp/professions.01.htm

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html