Mississippi pardons criminals

[Mikemcc]

So why not restrict the right of pardon to those where there is a legal question about the case and where the pardon can be defended in terms of natural justice, rather than tradition about the guys who scrub the floor.

 

[Sam.I.Am]

Fair enough, but are governors and presidents somehow better equipped to catch those who fall through the cracks than appeals and parole boards? I admit I know very little about this so these are honest questions.

Well all I'll say is that the buck has to stop with someone and we have decided that that's where it stops in this situation.

How prevalent are the abuses, in your estimation? And to swing this back to relevance to the OP, is there a reason why it seems that most pardons are given when the executive officer is about to end his or her final term rather than when the alleged injustice occurred? At first glance this seems to do more to foster cronyism than it does to rectify injustice.

Most claims of abuse are almost always made over political or emotional reasons and not on the facts of the case other than to spin them to fit a particular point of view, so it's often hard to tell from news reports or commentary what motivated the pardon in the first place. This is also why they wait until the end of their term where they can (theoretically) ignore the politics or emotions involved.

There are a few cases where a Governor or President has issued pardons before then but usually it's a pretty cut and dried case of a miscarriage of justice with hardly anyone objecting to it or it's something like a death sentence where they simply can't wait that long even though they might catch some political heat for doing so.

 

[Bri]

One of the reasons for having pardons is that sometimes the parole board gets it wrong. I don't know (given what information that we have on the matter) if that is the case or not here but it's certainly a possibility.

A possibility, I suppose. But I'm not sure what information the governor would have about the case that the parole board didn't have.

-Bri

 

[Bri]

According to Reuters:

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood was seeking a court injunction on Wednesday to block some of the more than 200 pardons granted by former governor Haley Barbour to people convicted of crimes including murder, rape and armed robbery, his spokeswoman said.

ETA: A judge has issued a temporary injunction to keep some of the prisoners in prison. Unfortunately, some of them had already been released and aren't included in the injunction.

-Bri

 

[Stacko]

Who else are they supposed to pardon?

Turkeys?

 

[Babbylonian]

My take on this specific situation: Without knowing case details, I wouldn't automatically question a governor pardoning 200 felons at the end of a term. Given the number of people tossed into prison in this country, I have no problem believing that all 200 were either somehow screwed by the system or had served a reasonable sentence.

 

[Sam.I.Am]

A possibility, I suppose. But I'm not sure what information the governor would have about the case that the parole board didn't have.

-Bri

I don't believe that a parole board has carte blanche in issuing paroles. They do have some guidelines that they must follow and sometimes those guidelines don't fit the individual situation. For all I know the fact that the parole board denied parole is one of the reasons that a pardon was issued instead and that if parole had been granted there wouldn't have been a pardon. The Governor can't issue paroles or order the parole board to issue one. It's an all or nothing deal as far as he's concerned.

 

[DavidJames]

Not so quick, an injunction has been issued.

Those soft on crime Republicans. (from the above link)

Hood said Barbour violated Mississippi's Constitution because the pardon requests for some inmates were not published 30 days in advance, as required

 

[Bri]

I don't believe that a parole board has carte blanche in issuing paroles. They do have some guidelines that they must follow and sometimes those guidelines don't fit the individual situation. For all I know the fact that the parole board denied parole is one of the reasons that a pardon was issued instead and that if parole had been granted there wouldn't have been a pardon. The Governor can't issue paroles or order the parole board to issue one. It's an all or nothing deal as far as he's concerned.

It's all possible. The governor's comments about it being a "tradition" to pardon those who worked in the governor's mansion didn't sound particularly reassuring that he had done a great deal of research on the prisoners in question.

-Bri

 

[Ranb]

Who else are they supposed to pardon?

Unless I am greatly mistaken, Mississippi law does not require that the governor pardon anyone. Just because he can do something does not mean he has to.

I have not seen evidence that any of the violent felons that received a pardon were wrongly convicted or deserved to be pardoned. The article gives no more reason for the pardons other than that they were trustees who worked outside of the prison.

Ranb

 

[Sam.I.Am]

It's all possible. The governor's comments about it being a "tradition" to pardon those who worked in the governor's mansion didn't sound particularly reassuring that he had done a great deal of research on the prisoners in question.

-Bri

Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning or condemning the pardons themselves. I was just explaining how the system worked in general to someone who asked because they didn't know. I most certainly don't have the answers as to whether or not they were deserved of were even legit as defined by the state. Different states and the federal government have different rules regarding pardons.

 

[marksman]

Unless I am greatly mistaken

Psst. It was a joke.

 

[TragicMonkey]

At least we know one thing: he won't be running for president down the line.

 

[Ranb]

Psst. It was a joke.

My irony meter jams anytime I log onto this site. Despite the fact that this website is devoted to discussion of skepticism and critical thinking in a friendly and lively way, I am occasionally subject to harassment and insults just for having opinions that are not the same as the majority here.

You might want to include a joke icon to help those people like myself who are irony impaired. Thanks.

Ranb

 

[BenBurch]

Is this the new GOP plan for reducing prison costs?

 

[A'isha]

Fair enough, but are governors and presidents somehow better equipped to catch those who fall through the cracks than appeals and parole boards? I admit I know very little about this so these are honest questions.

Yes. Theoretically (and according to the Founding Fathers), at least.

Humanity and good policy conspire to dictate, that the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible fettered or embarrassed. The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel. As the sense of responsibility is always strongest, in proportion as it is undivided, it may be inferred that a single man would be most ready to attend to the force of those motives which might plead for a mitigation of the rigor of the law, and least apt to yield to considerations which were calculated to shelter a fit object of its vengeance. The reflection that the fate of a fellow-creature depended on his sole fiat, would naturally inspire scrupulousness and caution; the dread of being accused of weakness or connivance, would beget equal circumspection, though of a different kind. On the other hand, as men generally derive confidence from their numbers, they might often encourage each other in an act of obduracy, and might be less sensible to the apprehension of suspicion or censure for an injudicious or affected clemency. On these accounts, one man appears to be a more eligible dispenser of the mercy of government, than a body of men.

- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers #74

 

[A'isha]

Is this the new GOP plan for reducing prison costs?

It's alarming to me how just many of those pardoned by Haley Barbour, both now and during his tenure as governor, were convicted of killing wives and ex-girlfriends (a lawyer acquaintance of mine pointed this out).

 

[BenBurch]

It's alarming to me how just many of those pardoned by Haley Barbour, both now and during his tenure as governor, were convicted of killing wives and ex-girlfriends (a lawyer acquaintance of mine pointed this out).

This whole matter is appalling.

 

[leftysergeant]

I am now actually hoping that Romney names that idiot Barbour as his running mate.

He would lose the support of all the first responders in the country.

Part of why we do not see that idiot Huckabee burning up the campaign trail again is that people remember what happened when he pardoned a scum bag named Maurice Clemmons.

 

[Robrob]

It's pretty strange, Barbour seems to have pardoned about as many people as the three former Governors (5-10) until the last days of his term. Then he went insane and pardoned another couple hundred?

What's up with that?