Clemmons was a teenager serving a 108 year prison term. Huckabee thought it was harsh and probably due to Clemmons being young and black. So he commuted the sentence to 47 years, allowing Clemmons to be paroled after serving 10 years. That’s right, he did 10 years.
So now we have the bizarre and sickening spectacle of liberals, who presumably oppose draconian prison terms especially when imposed on people of color, attacking a religious conservative because he commuted the sentence of someone because he believed in “redemption,” in the hope that people can better themselves.
Obviously Clemmons did not redeem himself. But there’s no way Huckabee could have known what would happen. Look, I’ve been clean and sober many years now and know more than a few men who were violent career criminals who turned their lives around – and sometimes it was because a judge gave them another chance or a sheriff saw the change in them and decided not to enforce a felony warrant, that kind of thing.
It seems political discourse in this country is so poisoned now that anything someone on the other side does must automatically be attacked, regardless of its merits.
And that’s just how the banksters and political elites like it, one side attacking the other and no one paying much attention to what they are doing.
The worst part is that this will make it even *more* unlikely that governors will use clemency in the future.
This country has become so heartless and harsh and inhumane. It’s tragic.