The Arkansas Leader - Garrick Feldman

Mo. prosecutor wants state to pay for housing DuMond
GARRICK FELDMAN - Leader editor and publisher

__We've received several communications since we started our series of columns on Gov. Hucka-bee's clemencies.
__ "Just a short note in regards to your article about the governor of Arkansas and his clemency posturing," writes Daniel White, chief assistant prosecuting attorney of Clay County, Mo., who prosecuted a certain rapist who was paroled in Arkansas and went on to kill two women in Missouri.
__ "The article makes note of Wayne DuMond and his conviction in the state of Missouri," prosecutor White writes. "The jury recommended and he received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He will never be eligible for parole. The article indicated he would not be eligible any time soon. Never is the appropriate term, when describing Wayne Dumond's opportunity for release of any kind."
__ We're glad to hear that never means never in Missouri, unlike in Arkansas, where killers serving life without the possibility of parole are routinely released from prison, even if they were convicted of capital murder, which calls for the death penalty.
__ But when I said DuMond won't be released anytime soon, I knew Missouri would never release a murderer like DuMond, although that's little comfort to the families of the Missouri women, or even DuMond's Arkansas rape victim, who fought Gov. Huckabee and the state Post-Prison Transfer Board to keep DuMond locked up.
__ "The whole thing burns me up," Prosecutor White told us. "I'd like to send a bill to Arkansas for the cost of housing DuMond for the rest of his life."
__ What's most troubling about Huckabee's clemencies is that while he'll release one group of killers (the ones he's gotten to know personally or because of the intercession of friends), he'll gladly execute scores of other murderers (even the mentally ill) without losing sleep over it.
__ Some of the murderers he had executed were no less deserving of clemency than the creeps Huckabee let go. Would any sane, rational person want that kind of power over life and death? How can Huckabee overturn a jury's verdict – say, life without the possibility of parole – and release a murderer, and the next day set the execution date for another killer?
__ Governors should void sentences only in rare instances – say, when a criminal has truly transformed himself, or if a jury and a prosecutor conspired to send an innocent person to prison. Huckabee has never made a convincing case for either, which is why his clemencies offend most people.
__ One could respect Huckabee if he showed some consistency and came out against the death penalty and commuted death sentences to life. That's what Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller did 34 years ago be-cause he believed the death penalty was wrong. Unlike Huckabee, he thought it was barbaric to execute one murderer and pardon another.
__ Not along after he was defeated by Dale Bumpers in the general election, Rockefeller issued this statement on Dec. 19, 1970:
__ "My position on capital punishment has been clear since long before I became governor. I am unalterably opposed to it and will remain so as long as I live. What earthly mortal has the omnipotence to say who among us shall live and who shall die? I do not. Moreover, in that the law grants me authority to set aside the death penalty, I cannot and will not turn my back on lifelong Christian teachings and beliefs, merely to let history run out its course on a fallible and failing theory of punitive justice.
__ "By the authority vested in me as the 37th elected governor of Arkansas, I am today commuting to life imprisonment the death sentences of the 15 prisoners now on death row at Tucker Prison Farm.
__ "The records, individually and collectively, of the 15 condemned prisoners bear no relevance to my decision. It is purely personal and philosophical. I yearn to see other chief executives throughout the nation follow suit, so that as a people we may hasten the elimination of barbarism as a tool of American justice.
__ "The records of the men on Death Row, along with the findings and recommendations of an outstanding committee I have empanelled, will now be presented to members of the State Parole Board for their own consideration.
__ "I am aware that there will be a reaction to my decision. However, failing to take the action while it is within my power, I could not live with myself," Rockefeller concluded.
__ Compare Rockefeller's eloquent statement with Huckabee's long silence. It was only after months of pressure from victims' families, the media and his own party that he stopped issuing clemencies to murders.
__ On Tuesday, the Post-Prison Transfer Board delivered another blow when it would not parole Denver Witham, a double murderer who is one of Huckabee's favorites.
__ Huckabee had made Witham eligible for parole, but the board stood up to the governor and nixed the idea.
__ He could go around the board, as he has done before, and eventually let Witham out with a pardon, but during this crucial election season, Huckabee would risk hurting his own party if he frees more killers any time soon.
__ Maybe after November.