O’Reilly Absolves Huckabee For Commuting Sentence Of Alleged Cop Killer

by Colby Hall | 8:06 am, December 1st, 2009

» 17 comments

huck_oreilly While serving as Arkansas governor, current Fox News Host Mike Huckabee commuted the sentence of Maurice Clemmons, the man who had been held as the primary suspect in the killing four police officers until his shooting this morning. The parallels to Willie Horton, and the similar effect on Huckabee’s plans to run for president have not been lost on many.

But not so fast — fellow Fox Host Bill O’Reilly had Huckabee on as guest last night, and quickly absolved him of any wrong doing, saying “Well, it’s not your fault, Governor.”

O’Reilly has historically been very tough on both judges and elected officials who are “soft on crime,” those who he feels provide parole or pardon too early in a criminal’s penance. He has frequently focused on “Jessica’s Law,” a Florida Law passed in 2005 designed to punish sex offenders and reduce their ability to re-offend.

The suspect in the Washington State Police shooting had just this year been charged for five felonies, including the rape of a 12 year-old girl, but was allowed out of jail on $15,000 bail. This was enough for O’Reilly to shift focus away from the former Arkansas governor, effectively giving Huckabee a pass for the commutation of Clemmon’s sentence.

O’Reilly concluded the interview by saying “I mean, look, you’ve got 1,200 of these cases a year. You gotta look at them. I’m not saying it’s your fault. I don’t think anyone watching thinks it’s your fault.” Maybe his plans to run for president haven not been damaged.

Transcript and video below:

O’REILLY: Thanks for being a stand-up guy, Governor. A lot of people want an explanation. This is a bad hombre, and you let him out. Why?

HUCKABEE: Well, Bill, first of all — the tragedy of this — if I could have known 9 years ago this guy was capable of something of this magnitude, obviously I would have never granted the commutation.

It’s sickening. The two people I value most in this country are soldiers and police officers, because they’re the only things standing between our freedom and total anarchy. And in the case of this particular individual — he was sentenced to 108 years for two crimes when he was 16. The post-prison transfer board — I’ll be very brief about this, but to understand — they recommended to me as governor for his commutation, which didn’t release him. It simply cut his sentence to 47 years. That would give him parole eligibility.

That was the commutation. I’m responsible for that. And it’s not something I’m happy about, at this particular moment.

O’REILLY: Now did you study it…

HUCKABEE: Yes…

O’REILLY: I mean, look. Governors have a lot of this stuff. Did you study this guy? Did you spend a lot of time on it, or did you just take the advice of your advisers?

HUCKABEE: No, I looked at every case file, and I had about 1,200 of these a year. This is what people need to understand. 92% of the time, they were denied. But in this case, the judge in the case was also recommending, and the parole board,on a 5-0 vote, because at the age of 16, the sentence he got for the crimes he committed back in 1989 was excessive for anything else that.

O’REILLY: Okay he was a bad guy in prison, and the prosecutors told you. So they say “Hey, this is a hard-core guy. This isn’t some kid who went wrong”.

HUCKABEE: We didn’t have any information from the prosecutors. We sent notices, which is the practice in Arkansas, to five different people: The Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the prosecutor, the judge, and law enforcement. The only official we have record of getting notification of from was the judge, who agreed with the recommendation of the parole board.

So that’s what we acted upon. What I acted upon,I’m responsible for that, and you know, my heart is broken for four families tonight

O’REILLY: Well, it’s not your fault, Governor. I mean, look, you’ve got 1,200 of these cases a year. You gotta look at them. I’m not saying it’s your fault. I don’t think anyone watching thinks it’s your fault.

But the judges in Washington state, come on. I mean, this guy moves from your state, Arkansas, to Washington state and then he racks up 8 felony charges. Eight felonies!

same2u

What a crock. O’Reilly would have feigned outrage if Huck wasn’t a colleague and a social conservative.
Fidoohki

Maybe. Maybe not. The fact that the state attorney dropped the ball on this is bad but
sad to say this but Mike Huckabee is partially to blame as well. The standard should be higher
than one returned recommendation when considering commuting sentences. Sorry
but that is how I feel.
m

Full spin zone.
ImNotBlue

same2u says:
December 1, 2009 at 8:42 am

Bull.

Fidoohki says:
December 1, 2009 at 10:25 am

Huckabee stated that he received a number of recommendations to REDUCE the sentence for this guy. Remember, Huckabee didn’t RELEASE him, he lowered his sentence, which put him up for parole. He was paroled, broke parole, and then through a series of technicalities wasn’t returned to jail. After that point, he committed a bunch of other crimes (allegedly raping a 12 year old girl, being one of them) and wasn’t held in prison like he should have been.

Huckabee has some responsibility for helping to pave the way to his eventual parole, but that’s really about it. Had he not reduced the sentence, maybe none of this would have happened… but who knows. To me, Huckabee’s involvement is slightly more than, say for example, one of his high school teacher’s letting him out of detention the day he committed the first crime (he was 16 at the time he was arrested and jailed, 10 years before Huckabee did anything about the sentence). Had XYZ done something different, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. That’s a lot of speculation… and perhaps it’s best to take the most recent offenses more seriously, rather than exploiting (not suggesting your doing that, but others are) Huckabee’s involvement because he’s (a) a Republican, (b) a potential presidential contender, (c) associated with FNC.

m says:
December 1, 2009 at 10:40 am

Yeah yeah… come on, M. Did you even watch the segment. No, you just took he hint from Hall’s headline, and your predisposition to dislike anything FNC/O’Reilly/Huckabee.

Isn’t the left the party of, “let them out of prison, prison doesn’t help?” Seems like a double standard. But that’s another argument.

Huckabee’s role in this is certainly on the timeline… but it’s not the “smoking gun” you and the other haters want it to be. Perhaps if it was, you’d have provided a more thorough analysis…

Colby Hall

Shouldn’t you credit Media Matters, or KOS, or one of those other Blue Blog sources when you write something like this? Perhaps this is your own “analysis,” and you’re just trying out for a job at one of those places.

Cheap shots and misleading information… that’s what you’ve provided. Thankfully, anyone who watches the segment will see through your bias.
Nachi

Huckabee. Was Jesus there as well?? Using cheap religion to mask gross personal failures is sooo typical of the weak GOP set. They use religion like a drunk uses a lamp post. And so some Repunks are disenchanted w The Huckster?? It is not at all unusual for the weak & endangered to chew each other up. Perhaps he can be promoted to the next Exalted Cyclops. O’Reilly?? Apostles of hatred and oppresion. Absolution by O’Reilly. Ummm. Heavy stuff there. Yup.
libra blue

The GOP isn’t the only one to try and use “religion to mask gross personal failures.” Funny thing is, Judge Humphrey tried to use the same Jesus excuse to absolve himself and Clemmons last night during his interview with Anderson.
Fidoohki

Iamblue says:

Exactly, but when you only get two of the five official reccomendations it might be a good idea
to err on the side of caution. However, it is easy for ‘us’ to pass judgement here. We aren’t
a sitting Gov. :/
libra blue

@Fidoohki, Did you see this guy’s rap sheet? There is no doubt about it, he was a bad seed who should have stayed locked up.
ImNotBlue

libra blue says:
December 1, 2009 at 4:21 pm

But the rap sheet wasn’t that bad at the time he got his sentence commuted. You can’t predict the future…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Maggie-Denson/100000117356468 Maggie Denson

Nachi:

HEY do you know who it was that let this man go free, after the rape of a 12 year old girl? It seems to be the way today, for judges to just let a pedofile go on his own after he admitted to the rape! WHY was he let go after being convicted? Maybe this could have stopped the murder of those city servers, do you think? O.K. did you ever make a misjudgment of another person, don’t lie about it? It was just one mistake and everyone deserves a mistake or two in their lives. How many have you made, to date?
libra blue

@I’mNotBlue, Really? It was pretty bad based on what Anderson read off last night. I disagree, I think there are instances when you can predict the future. Just like in the Ft. Hood case, if law enforcement continues to ignore red flags for politically correct reasons someone will pay for it.

Like I said before, it makes you wonder how many more Clemmonses and Hasans are out there roaming the streets because of politically correct reasons.
libra blue

@Maggie Denson, That is a good question. I want to know who granted him parole in 2004 and who granted bail for this last offense last week?
ImNotBlue

libra blue says:
December 1, 2009 at 6:54 pm

Eh… I’m not prepared to believe this was a PC thing like Ft. Hood. This was too much compassion for someone who didn’t deserve it, too much sloppiness from judges and lawyers, and too little common sense from judges who release sexual predators.

Huckabee commuted the guy’s sentence over 10 years ago… but he was released on bail after a rape charge just a few weeks ago. Compared to those judges, Huckabee’s hands are relatively clean.
libra blue

@ImNotBlue, I think we are basically in agreement here. However, if it wasn’t based on PC why do you think they would release someone with this type of record, not once, but twice, and then give him bail on serious charges with a record like his?

Let’s not forget that Arkansas even sent a warning to Washington when Clemmons moved there telling them that he was “a high risk for repeat offending.” So they were not oblivious to his record.

Do you think it was just coincidental that Judge Humphrey, who pushed for that first release, is a black judge?

I agree about Huckabee to some extent, the bigger responsibility lies with those responsible for his 2004 parole and even more with the judge who granted him bail last week. I would be interested in seeing the racial makeup of that bunch.
libra blue

Drew Griffin went after Huckabee big time last night on 360. Something tells me this is more about Huckabee’s association with FNC than it is about the deaths of these police officers. I think Huckabee shares the responsibility, but the judge who granted bail to Clemmons last week even with his adult record and serious charges before him, as well as a warning from Arkansas, is more to blame.

Anderson did not give the name of the judge who granted the bail, nor did he show his photo.

Anderson and CNN should be ashamed of themselves for using the deaths of those four police officers in order to attack FNC. Disgraceful.
libra blue

Correction: After rewatching the segment on the Washington shooter I did notice that 360 put the judge’s name up on the screen under a quote, but neither Anderson, Drew Griffin, nor Joe Johns ever mentioned his name. Anderson and Johns were careful to refer to him merely as “the judge.”

For the record, the name of the judge who granted Clemmons bail one week before he murdered those four police officers is Thomas J. Felnagle.
libra blue

BTW, Anderson also failed to tell viewers that Felnagle had overturned another judge’s order of “No Bail” for Clemmons on the child rape charge.