LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee had a hand in twice as many pardons and commutations as his three predecessors combined.
The case he’s asked about most concerns the parole of a castrated rapist who later killed a woman.
Although the Republican presidential contender and Southern Baptist preacher plays down any personal involvement in that release, Huckabee granted 1,033 pardons and commutations in his 10 1/2 years as governor of Arkansas. The acts of clemency benefited the stepson of a staff member, murderers who worked at the governor’s mansion, a rock star and inmates who received good words from their pastors.
“It seems to be true at least anecdotally that if a minister is involved, (Huckabee) seems likely to grant clemency,” prosecutor Robert Herzfeld said in 2004 after successfully battling the then-governor over the release of a killer.
Huckabee defended the number of clemencies issued and said part of it reflected the increase in the state’s prison population. He also said he tried to judge every clemency request “fairly and honestly.”
“Nobody is ever mad at you for turning one down,” Huckabee told reporters Monday before a fundraising stop in University Park, Texas. “A whole lot of people are mad at you for ever signing one.”
Whitewater figure David Hale was pardoned after being sentenced to 21 days in a state insurance case. Huckabee complained it would cost too much to hold him. The price tag: $1,200.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards received a pardon for a 1975 traffic offense. Huckabee met him at a North Little Rock concert.
During his years as governor, Huckabee granted clemency an average of about once every four days. Huckabee’s successor, Mike Beebe, has issued 40 so far this year, fewer than one a week. Bill Clinton, Frank White and Jim Guy Tucker granted 507 clemencies in the 17 1/2 years they served as governor.
The most-discussed clemency case during Huckabee’s tenure involved Wayne DuMond, who was castrated — he said by masked men who attacked him at home — while awaiting trial on charges he raped a teenager in 1984. Though Huckabee did not pardon DuMond or commute his sentence, two members of a state parole board maintain that he pressured them to make a decision in the case.
Huckabee denies any such pressuring and notes that it was his predecessor, Tucker, who reduced DuMond’s sentence, making him eligible for parole.
Huckabee says there’s nothing in his record to indicate he’s soft on crime. While the number of pardons exceeded those of his predecessors, so did the size of the state prison system and so did the number of people executed.
Prosecutors say Huckabee was more inclined to release or reduce the sentences of prisoners if he had direct contact with them or was lobbied by those close to him.
