| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Michelle Malkin" |
| Date: |
09 Dec 2007 05:11:59 AM |
| Object: |
Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release |
It appears that Mr, Nice Guy Huckabee isn't
such a nice guy, after all, considering how he treated a rape victim.
Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release
Former Arkansas governor says he didn't free the man who later killed at
least one woman, but board members say they felt pressured.
By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 8, 2007
Pastor Jay D. Cole had two close friends. One was an inmate in the Arkansas
state penitentiary. There, the minister would sit with Wayne DuMond "and
pray and read the Bible." For a while, the prisoner's wife even lived in
Cole's home.
Cole's friendship with Mike Huckabee ran deeper, back to when Huckabee was
the youngest-ever head of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. The two men
produced Bible lessons on videotape. "We worked heavily with him when he got
politically involved too," Cole said.
A little over 10 years ago, the paths of these three men merged in Little
Rock, the state capital, where Huckabee was the new governor. With Cole's
urging, and with DuMond insisting he was "born again," Huckabee played a key
role in setting free a rapist who was supposed to serve many more years, say
three of the seven members of the state board that paroled DuMond.
After being released, DuMond moved to Missouri, where less than a year later
he suffocated the mother of three in a Kansas City suburb. Police suspect
that he killed another woman there as well.
How a convicted rapist went free has become an issue in today's increasingly
heated presidential campaign. As if out of nowhere, Huckabee has surged to a
leading spot in public opinion polls in the Republican contest. Amid the new
attention, he is facing questions about whether his deep Christian faith --
what on the stump he says "defines me" -- colored his view of Wayne DuMond's
case.
Trying to bury any doubts, Huckabee said this week that he had
"considered" -- but then rejected -- the idea of using his powers as
governor to commute DuMond's sentence and release him for time served. The
state parole board acted before he had to make a final call. It was the
parole board, Huckabee said, that unlocked the cell door.
"It was a horrible situation, horrible. I feel awful about it in every way.
I wish there was some way I could go back and reverse the clock and put him
back in prison," the candidate said at a news conference this week.
Though he acknowledged discussing the case with the state parole board,
Huckabee said that conversation was "simply part of a broader discussion"
initiated at the request of the board chairman. "I did not ask them to do
anything," he said.
Three board members recalled it differently. They said Huckabee raised the
issue of DuMond's release, asking to discuss the matter with them in a
closed session. They said his religious beliefs, and the influence of the
evangelical community from which he came, drove him.
"We felt pressured by him," said board member Ermer Pondexter. "I felt
compelled to do it. . . . It was a favor for the governor."
Looking back, she added, "I regret it."
Parole board member Deborah Springer Suttlar said Huckabee did not mince his
feelings about DuMond: "He wanted him out."
A committee of board members voted to parole DuMond. It took the action just
before the deadline by which Huckabee would have had to decide what
assistance, if any, he would grant to an inmate whom he had already said he
wanted to help.
"He thought DuMond just grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, that he may
have gotten a raw deal and a longer sentence than others under similar
circumstances," recalled board member Charles Chastain, who said he was the
lone dissenter in a 4-1 committee vote to grant parole.
All seven members of the board had been appointed by Huckabee's Democratic
predecessors.
The board chairman declined to comment; one board member could not be
reached and one said he did not remember details of the case. A seventh
member is deceased.
Huckabee said at the news conference that he was unnerved by accounts from
parole board and other critics that he played a larger role in DuMond's
release. "There will be people who will probably be brought forth to make
statements but, you know, I can't fix it," he said. "I can only tell the
truth and let the truth be my judge."
Cole, the minister who befriended DuMond, said: "The governor felt
compassion for Wayne. He was sorry for him. So, I asked the governor to
help. I asked him if anything could be done. And Mike had a lot of people on
his neck trying to get him to get Wayne released."
"Many of them," Cole added, "were in the Christian community."
The story of the convict, the preacher and the governor who wants to be
president rings with Gothic details -- rape and castration, a corrupt county
sheriff and state politics. Finally, there is murder.
It opens in 1984, when a 17-year-old cheerleader, the daughter of a
mortician called "Stevie" Stevens, was kidnapped from Forrest City by a man
in a red pickup. The man drove her to a field and raped her. He used a knife
to cut off her bra. The Forrest City case drew public attention, because the
cheerleader was a distant cousin of then-Gov. Bill Clinton.
The police arrested DuMond, a skinny Vietnam War veteran, handyman and
father of six. He had been suspected in a rape in Texas and as an accomplice
to murder in Oklahoma. Those cases didn't stick.
While DuMond remained free on bail awaiting trial, police were summoned to
his home, where the bleeding suspect told them that several men had pushed
their way in and castrated him. Some authorities were skeptical, theorizing
that DuMond had castrated himself in a ploy for mercy -- to claim, once
castrated, that he would no longer be a threat to women.
For a while, the local sheriff kept DuMond's testicles in a fruit jar on his
desk, with a sign: "This is what happens to men who go bad in my county."
DuMond sued the sheriff over that humiliation and won a $110,000 judgment.
The sheriff went to prison in an unrelated extortion case and died there.
DuMond was sentenced to life in prison for rape, plus 20 years for the
kidnapping. Clinton ignored his pleas for parole or a sentence reduction.
Once in prison, DuMond said he found religion.
"I became his spiritual director," Cole said. "He was a nice fella, and it
was hard to believe he could have done what he was accused of doing. And
Wayne claimed to be saved. So, we'd sit and talk and pray for two hours, and
other times he'd call me on the phone a lot. Collect. He was just wanting to
know if I'd made any headway finding people who could help his situation."
In 1992, Clinton was elected president, and the state's lieutenant governor,
Jim Guy Tucker, became governor. Tucker evaluated the DuMond case and found
the life sentence, coupled with the castration, made for an unusually harsh
punishment. He reduced the sentence to a fixed term of 39 years and six
months; DuMond was now eligible for parole.
In 1996, Tucker was convicted of fraud in the Arkansas-based Whitewater
investigation. Huckabee, the lieutenant governor, was elevated to governor.
Cole, meanwhile, was working to help DuMond. Cole said he talked to
"probably a hundred people" about his hope of winning DuMond's release,
turning foremost to the evangelical community. He said many evangelicals
were encouraged that DuMond had claimed a religious conversion, and that
many joined Cole in writing to Huckabee about DuMond's situation.
The clincher, he said, was their belief that DuMond had been "saved."
"All of them thought Wayne was innocent," said Cole. "And the governor knew
about it. We talked about it together. But Mike was very careful. He was
cautious about saying too much. In an elevated position like governor,
you've got to be careful."
Huckabee said the DuMond case was already "on my desk" when he became
governor in July 1996. He announced that he was considering a commutation.
Later, he acknowledged, he wrote a letter to the prisoner saying parole was
a better option.
"Dear Wayne. . . . My desire is that you be released from prison," the
governor wrote. "I feel now that parole is the best way. . . ."
The rape victim, Ashley Stevens, became enraged. She and prosecutor Fletcher
Long met with Huckabee at the Capitol. They warned him that DuMond would
strike again.
At one point in the meeting, Stevens recalled, she stood up, put her face
next to Huckabee's and told the governor: "This is how close I was to
DuMond. I'll never forget his face, and you'll never forget mine."
The meeting ended, and Long, a Republican, could tell the governor was
unmoved: "Most of what I think about him would be unprintable. His actions
were just about as arrogant as you can get."
The prosecutor added that Huckabee and Arkansas evangelicals were conned by
DuMond's contention that he had been "saved" -- a common ruse by prisoners.
"If you're religiously converted," Long said, "how do you go out and kill
two women in Missouri?"
Before DuMond could be paroled, he had to find another state that would take
him, a process that took several years. Texas did not want DuMond, nor did
Florida. A new wife he had met while in prison was from Missouri.
So, in 1999, after serving 14 years of his sentence, DuMond relocated to the
Kansas City area.
Less than a year later, Carol Shields was suffocated in a friend's
apartment. Scrapings of DNA under her fingernails led to DuMond. The day
before DuMond was arrested in the slaying, another woman, Sara Andrasek, was
killed in much the same way.
DuMond was convicted of killing Shields and in 2004 was sentenced to life in
prison, this time without parole. He was not charged in the second slaying.
He died in 2005 in prison, of cancer of the vocal cords. He was 55.
Prosecutor Dan White of Clay County, Mo., the man who put him away for good,
said: "The world's a better place without Wayne DuMond in it."
.
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release |
10 Dec 2007 01:15:25 AM |
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In article <88SdnYgRALbhUMbanZ2dnUVZ_vGinZ2d@comcast.com>,
"Michelle Malkin" <hypatiab7@comcast.net> wrote:
It appears that Mr, Nice Guy Huckabee isn't
such a nice guy, after all, considering how he treated a rape victim.
Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release
Former Arkansas governor says he didn't free the man who later killed at
least one woman, but board members say they felt pressured.
By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 8, 2007
Pastor Jay D. Cole had two close friends. One was an inmate in the Arkansas
state penitentiary. There, the minister would sit with Wayne DuMond "and
pray and read the Bible." For a while, the prisoner's wife even lived in
Cole's home.
Cole's friendship with Mike Huckabee ran deeper, back to when Huckabee was
the youngest-ever head of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. The two men
produced Bible lessons on videotape. "We worked heavily with him when he got
politically involved too," Cole said.
A little over 10 years ago, the paths of these three men merged in Little
Rock, the state capital, where Huckabee was the new governor. With Cole's
urging, and with DuMond insisting he was "born again," Huckabee played a key
role in setting free a rapist who was supposed to serve many more years, say
three of the seven members of the state board that paroled DuMond.
After being released, DuMond moved to Missouri, where less than a year later
he suffocated the mother of three in a Kansas City suburb. Police suspect
that he killed another woman there as well.
How a convicted rapist went free has become an issue in today's increasingly
heated presidential campaign. As if out of nowhere, Huckabee has surged to a
leading spot in public opinion polls in the Republican contest. Amid the new
attention, he is facing questions about whether his deep Christian faith --
what on the stump he says "defines me" -- colored his view of Wayne DuMond's
case.
Does anyone remember Willie Horton and how the GOP slime machine sued
that against Dukakis in the 1988 election? It seems that some chickens
may be coming home to roost. Bye, bye, Huck. We hardly knew ye.
--
John #1782
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| User: "Michelle Malkin" |
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| Title: Re: Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release |
10 Dec 2007 03:03:07 AM |
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"johac" <jhachmann@remove.sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:jhachmann-DA4925.23152509122007@news.giganews.com...
In article <88SdnYgRALbhUMbanZ2dnUVZ_vGinZ2d@comcast.com>,
"Michelle Malkin" <hypatiab7@comcast.net> wrote:
It appears that Mr, Nice Guy Huckabee isn't
such a nice guy, after all, considering how he treated a rape victim.
Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release
Former Arkansas governor says he didn't free the man who later killed at
least one woman, but board members say they felt pressured.
By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 8, 2007
Pastor Jay D. Cole had two close friends. One was an inmate in the
Arkansas
state penitentiary. There, the minister would sit with Wayne DuMond "and
pray and read the Bible." For a while, the prisoner's wife even lived in
Cole's home.
Cole's friendship with Mike Huckabee ran deeper, back to when Huckabee
was
the youngest-ever head of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. The two
men
produced Bible lessons on videotape. "We worked heavily with him when he
got
politically involved too," Cole said.
A little over 10 years ago, the paths of these three men merged in Little
Rock, the state capital, where Huckabee was the new governor. With Cole's
urging, and with DuMond insisting he was "born again," Huckabee played a
key
role in setting free a rapist who was supposed to serve many more years,
say
three of the seven members of the state board that paroled DuMond.
After being released, DuMond moved to Missouri, where less than a year
later
he suffocated the mother of three in a Kansas City suburb. Police suspect
that he killed another woman there as well.
How a convicted rapist went free has become an issue in today's
increasingly
heated presidential campaign. As if out of nowhere, Huckabee has surged
to a
leading spot in public opinion polls in the Republican contest. Amid the
new
attention, he is facing questions about whether his deep Christian
faith --
what on the stump he says "defines me" -- colored his view of Wayne
DuMond's
case.
Does anyone remember Willie Horton and how the GOP slime machine sued
that against Dukakis in the 1988 election? It seems that some chickens
may be coming home to roost. Bye, bye, Huck. We hardly knew ye.
And, Dukakis was framed, whereas Huckabee is guilty as...er...sin.
--
^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^
Michelle Malkin (Mickey) aa list#1
BAAWA Knight & Bible Thumper Thumper
^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^
When fascism comes to America, it will be
wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross -
Sinclair Lewis
--
John #1782
.
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release |
10 Dec 2007 11:52:19 PM |
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In article <ro-dnSHh2KBancDanZ2dnUVZ_v-hnZ2d@comcast.com>,
"Michelle Malkin" <hypatiab7@comcast.net> wrote:
"johac" <jhachmann@remove.sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:jhachmann-DA4925.23152509122007@news.giganews.com...
In article <88SdnYgRALbhUMbanZ2dnUVZ_vGinZ2d@comcast.com>,
"Michelle Malkin" <hypatiab7@comcast.net> wrote:
It appears that Mr, Nice Guy Huckabee isn't
such a nice guy, after all, considering how he treated a rape victim.
Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release
Former Arkansas governor says he didn't free the man who later killed at
least one woman, but board members say they felt pressured.
By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 8, 2007
Pastor Jay D. Cole had two close friends. One was an inmate in the
Arkansas
state penitentiary. There, the minister would sit with Wayne DuMond "and
pray and read the Bible." For a while, the prisoner's wife even lived in
Cole's home.
Cole's friendship with Mike Huckabee ran deeper, back to when Huckabee
was
the youngest-ever head of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. The two
men
produced Bible lessons on videotape. "We worked heavily with him when he
got
politically involved too," Cole said.
A little over 10 years ago, the paths of these three men merged in Little
Rock, the state capital, where Huckabee was the new governor. With Cole's
urging, and with DuMond insisting he was "born again," Huckabee played a
key
role in setting free a rapist who was supposed to serve many more years,
say
three of the seven members of the state board that paroled DuMond.
After being released, DuMond moved to Missouri, where less than a year
later
he suffocated the mother of three in a Kansas City suburb. Police suspect
that he killed another woman there as well.
How a convicted rapist went free has become an issue in today's
increasingly
heated presidential campaign. As if out of nowhere, Huckabee has surged
to a
leading spot in public opinion polls in the Republican contest. Amid the
new
attention, he is facing questions about whether his deep Christian
faith --
what on the stump he says "defines me" -- colored his view of Wayne
DuMond's
case.
Does anyone remember Willie Horton and how the GOP slime machine sued
that against Dukakis in the 1988 election? It seems that some chickens
may be coming home to roost. Bye, bye, Huck. We hardly knew ye.
And, Dukakis was framed, whereas Huckabee is guilty as...er...sin.
Exactly. Dukakis was unfairly attacked by the Republicans. This time
they are doing it to themselves. They are in meltdown.
--
John #1782
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release |
10 Dec 2007 11:32:39 AM |
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On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:03:07 -0500, "Michelle Malkin"
<hypatiab7@comcast.net> wrote:
"johac" <jhachmann@remove.sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:jhachmann-DA4925.23152509122007@news.giganews.com...
In article <88SdnYgRALbhUMbanZ2dnUVZ_vGinZ2d@comcast.com>,
"Michelle Malkin" <hypatiab7@comcast.net> wrote:
It appears that Mr, Nice Guy Huckabee isn't
such a nice guy, after all, considering how he treated a rape victim.
Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release
Former Arkansas governor says he didn't free the man who later killed at
least one woman, but board members say they felt pressured.
By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 8, 2007
Pastor Jay D. Cole had two close friends. One was an inmate in the
Arkansas
state penitentiary. There, the minister would sit with Wayne DuMond "and
pray and read the Bible." For a while, the prisoner's wife even lived in
Cole's home.
Cole's friendship with Mike Huckabee ran deeper, back to when Huckabee
was
the youngest-ever head of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. The two
men
produced Bible lessons on videotape. "We worked heavily with him when he
got
politically involved too," Cole said.
A little over 10 years ago, the paths of these three men merged in Little
Rock, the state capital, where Huckabee was the new governor. With Cole's
urging, and with DuMond insisting he was "born again," Huckabee played a
key
role in setting free a rapist who was supposed to serve many more years,
say
three of the seven members of the state board that paroled DuMond.
After being released, DuMond moved to Missouri, where less than a year
later
he suffocated the mother of three in a Kansas City suburb. Police suspect
that he killed another woman there as well.
How a convicted rapist went free has become an issue in today's
increasingly
heated presidential campaign. As if out of nowhere, Huckabee has surged
to a
leading spot in public opinion polls in the Republican contest. Amid the
new
attention, he is facing questions about whether his deep Christian
faith --
what on the stump he says "defines me" -- colored his view of Wayne
DuMond's
case.
Does anyone remember Willie Horton and how the GOP slime machine sued
that against Dukakis in the 1988 election? It seems that some chickens
may be coming home to roost. Bye, bye, Huck. We hardly knew ye.
And, Dukakis was framed, whereas Huckabee is guilty as...er...sin.
Dukakis wasn't framed.
The issue was the prison systems weekend furlough program for
convicted murderers.
Dukakis, while he didn't start the program supported it.
<Ironically it was Republican Governor Francis W. Sargent who signed
it into law>
The Massachusetts legislature passed a law exempting murderers which
Dukakis vetoed.
Horton who was serving life without parole for a brutal murder was
released for a weekend and didn't return to prison.
While out he repeatedly raped a woman after pistol whipping and
knifing her fiancé.
Gore was in fact the first to mention the furlough program during a
campaign.
Lee Atwater jumped on the issue which was ligitimate and Democrats,
because Horton was black, attemted to divert it by playing the race
card.
That was ridiculous of course because it was the program itself that
was at issue and the race of the killer was irrelevant except to
political pundits who claimed Horton was used because of his race.
Even if Republicans did intend to use Horton because of his race
<Which they may well have> the central issue was still the program
itself and the danger of giving furloughs to convicted murderers.
It was politics and typically attempts were made to cloud the real
issue by injecting irrelevant side issues into the discussion in order
to incite and confuse the voter.
It was a Republican and then a Democrat who were responsible for
Horton's getting a second chance to maim and murder innocent,
defenseless people but like Adam blaming Eve, Eve blaming the serpent
and Jehovah who created the problem in the first place not so much as
addressing his role in the affair, there was plenty of blame to go
around but everybody wanted to blame somebody else.
Politics sucks.
atheist@home#1554
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