Huckabee is clearly gaining momentum in the polls and has raised nearly $1 million during the month of October alone. With increased prominence comes increased media scrutiny, and the specter of mudslinging by political opponents and opportunists.
One area of criticism for Huckabee has been his handling of the Wayne Dumond case while governor of Arkansas, as detailed in this Sept. 10, 2007 National Review article by Byron York:
"In September 1984, Dumond kidnapped and raped a 17-year-old high-school cheerleader in the small eastern-Arkansas town of Forrest City. Dumond was allowed to remain free while awaiting trial, and in March 1985 two masked men entered his house, tied him up with fishing line, and castrated him. People were stunned; the case, already notorious, became much more so. And that was before the local sheriff, a rather colorful man named Coolidge Conlee, displayed Dumond’s severed testicles in a jar of formaldehyde on his desk in the St. Francis County building. Amid tons of publicity, Dumond was found guilty and sentenced to life plus 20 years.With York's even-handed coverage as background, here are some additional items for consideration. The first article comes shortly after Gov. Huckabee's Sept. 20, 1996 announcement on behalf of Dumond. Note the text highlighted in red, where issues of fairness regarding Dumond's sentence are raised both by Gov. Huckabee and by the State Parole Board even before Huckabee entered public office.
The case took on a political coloring when it became known that the victim was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton. After conviction, Dumond, who claimed he was innocent, asked Clinton for clemency. Clinton declined. Dumond also argued that even if he were guilty his sentence was excessive, and his position won him some sympathy, not least on the grounds that he had suffered terribly at the hands of those unknown assailants. In April 1992, when Dumond had served just seven years, Lt. Gov. Tucker, acting as governor while Clinton was out of state campaigning for president, commuted Dumond’s sentence to a level where he would be eligible for parole. That didn’t mean Dumond would go free, only that the state parole board would consider the question. The board declined to free Dumond.
That’s where things stood when Huckabee took office on July 15, 1996. Huckabee tells me he had his doubts about Dumond’s guilt, and also felt sorry for him over the castration attack. On September 20, just weeks after taking office, Huckabee announced that he intended to set Dumond free, saying that there were “serious questions as to the legitimacy of his guilt.” On October 31, Huckabee met with the parole board. Not long after, the board voted to free Dumond, but on the condition he move to another state. Huckabee was pleased, in part because—given that the board had voted to free Dumond—there was no need for Huckabee to commute the sentence or pardon him. So Huckabee denied Dumond’s now-irrelevant pardon application while at the same time congratulating him on his freedom. “Dear Wayne,” Huckabee wrote in a letter to Dumond. “My desire is that you be released from prison. I feel that parole is the best way for your reintroduction to society to take place.” But no state would take Dumond. He remained behind bars for two and a half more years, until the board voted to free him in Arkansas. He was released in October 1999 and returned home. The next year, Dumond left the state, moving to a small town near Kansas City, Mo. Within weeks of arriving, he sexually assaulted and murdered a 39-year-old woman at an apartment complex near his home. The day that happened, everyone knew that freeing Wayne Dumond had been a very, very bad idea.
A political storm erupted. Huckabee sought cover by saying that all he had done was to deny Dumond’s pardon application. But some Democrats claimed that Huckabee had pressured the parole board to free Dumond. What actually happened between Huckabee and the board remains unclear to this day, but there is no doubt that Huckabee wanted Wayne Dumond set free. And today, he knows he was terribly wrong.
But he’s still defensive. “My only official action was to deny his clemency,” Huckabee tells me in Iowa. He spreads the blame around, not only to Tucker, who originally commuted Dumond’s sentence, but to Bill Clinton as well. “Tucker could not have done that without Clinton’s full knowledge and approval,” Huckabee says. I ask about the “Dear Wayne” letter. Didn’t Huckabee want Dumond to go free? “I thought he would, you know, be clean,” Huckabee tells me. “And he had a job, he had sponsors lined up, so at the time, I did not have this apprehension that something horrible like that would happen. I did want him to report in [to parole authorities], because I just didn’t know—you never know about a guy like that.” As he talks, Huckabee looks down. “I hate it like crazy,” he says. “It’s one of the most horrible things ever that he went off and did what he did. It’s just terrible. There’s nothing you can say, but my gosh, it’s the thing you pray never happens. And it did.”
The Dumond case followed Huckabee around for the rest of his time in the governor’s office. In his 2002 reelection bid, his Democratic opponent based virtually her entire campaign on the issue. And Huckabee’s actions toward Dumond raise larger questions about his views on crime and punishment. Critics, and some friends, too, say Huckabee’s position was deeply influenced by his Christian faith. “When I first met him, I was going through his positions on issues and I said, ‘You’re a conservative, so I’m sure you oppose granting parole for violent felons,’” says Dick Morris, the campaign consultant who ran Huckabee’s first run for lieutenant governor. “And he said, ‘Oh no, I would never take that position, because the concept of Christian duty requires that there is a possibility of forgiveness. The concept of Christian forgiveness requires that we keep open the process of parole—use it sparingly, but keep it open.’”
When I ask Huckabee about that, he reminds me that he was tough on a lot of criminals, too. “Heck, I executed more people than any governor in the history of the state,” Huckabee tells me. “It’s not something I’m bragging about, I’m just saying that if it had been simply a matter of my Christian conscience saying I don’t believe in capital punishment, then I was pretty lousy in my conscience.” Watching him speak, it’s clear Huckabee feels deeply about the issue. If he continues to rise in the polls, it’s likely he’ll be talking about it a lot more."
"'[Governor Huckabee's] major factor is based on lengths on rape sentences, and based on the fact that this man was castrated,' [Huckabee spokesman, Rex] Nelson said. The governor 'has said all along that he's not going to make any determination of guilt or innocence.'
Dumond's lawyers have said his sentence should be no more than 6/4 years based on a comparison of sentences for similar crimes. In 1990, the state Board of Parole and Community Rehabilitation recommended that then-Gov. Bill Clinton commute Dumond's sentence to time served -- a recommendation that Clinton, a distant cousin of Stevens, rejected." -- Source: "Huckabee doubts based on evidence judges didn't buy," by Joe Stumpe, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 2,1996, pg. 1B.
A day later, the following endorsement appeared in a Arkansas Democrat-Gazette column written by former managing editor, John R. Starr:
"In the 13-plus years I was managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat, no story generated more letters and phone calls to my desk than the bizarre case of Wayne Dumond.A few months later, Gov. Huckabee issued this statement following the 4-1 vote for Dumond's parole by the Arkansas Post-Prison Transfer Board. Note again the text in red on the issue of fairness in sentencing:
I heard from and checked evidence provided by at least half a dozen folks who claimed to have investigated the case. The Democrat hired a free-lance reporter to investigate it for us.
To a person, because not all were men, the "investigators" concluded that Dumond was innocent and that there was no way he could have received a fair trial in the politically charged atmosphere of Forrest City...
[Starr goes on to quote and second the opinion of another columnist from the Arkansas Times, Mara Leveritt]
'If ever a man deserved it (clemency),' she wrote, 'the castrated convicted rapist Wayne Dumond does. The case has been a travesty. In finally granting Dumond clemency, Huckabee has righted an overdue wrong.'
Well said, Mara." -- Source: "Correcting an overdue wrong" by John R. Starr, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 3, 1996, pg. 7B.
"'The Post-Prison Transfer Board has voted to parole Wayne Dumond, and he will be released to Texas, where he has a job, counseling and a support group awaiting him,' Huckabee said in a statement issued after the board's vote. 'I concur with the board's action and hope the lives of all those involved can move forward. The action of the board accomplishes what I sought to do in considering an earlier request for a commutation. That is to allow Mr. Dumond to leave Arkansas since he has a sentence served longer than those normally given for similar crimes in the county where he was convicted."Huckabee noted that Dumond has been eligible for parole for more than four years since Lt. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker commuted his sentence in 1992." -- Source: "Dumond granted parole; Huckabee agrees with board; Falagin upset," by Emmett George, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 17, 1997, pg. 1A.
It's worth noting that governors are frequently criticized for commuting sentences of violent offenders, including another earlier presidential candidate from Hope, Arkansas -- William Jefferson Clinton:
"If Dumond is proved guilty of the Missouri homicide, it will not be the first time mercy has been bestowed on an Arkansas convict who later took a life. James Surridge, who was in prison for first-degree murder, was granted clemency in 1979 by [then-Governor Bill] Clinton after Surridge was diagnosed with cancer. Spokesmen for the governor's office said at the time that Surridge was going home to die with family at hand. After getting out of prison on parole in February 1980, Surridge was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison in 1981 in another murder, the death of a Pine Bluff businessman. Surridge returned to prison that year and died in 1993." -- Source: "Governors find clemencies often become point of contention" by Doug Thompson, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 16, 2001, pg. B1.
According to York's National Review article, the Parole Board in Arkansas voted twice to parole Wayne Dumond. At the worst, Huckabee could be accused of lending his personal support toward paroling Dumond, who served nearly 14 years for his rape conviction. Huckabee's official intervention would have been a charitable and reasonable act, but one rendered unnecessary by the Parole Board's votes.
Leaders of good character and moral principles can and will make some decisions proven faulty in hindsight. Given his record as governor, no one can seriously claim that Huckabee is soft on crime, but thankfully, neither is he without mercy or charity. It is Huckabee's record of compassionate conservatism, seasoned with 10 years of eloquent and effective leadership in a traditionally "blue" state which has captured the surging hopes of evangelical voters at the grassroots. It would be a grave mistake if other voters across the county could not forgive Huckabee for a charitable gesture in a case that ended tragically.
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UPDATE - DEC. 6, 2007
More information on the Dumond case posted in the comments of this posting, and in this Dec. 6th posting on RightSmart.
12 comments:
nice job, JR.
I'm going to bookmark this post for future reference. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this.
Added to my del.icio.us. Thanks for this great blog on this issue.
I am an uber-conservative who still supports President Bush through thick and thin. I am a Southern Baptist Evangelical-Fundamentalist with graduate degrees and work in history and modern political science at Baylor and Vanderbilt I am tremendously anti-Clinton. I was extremely excited about the Mike Huckabee candidacy, until I learned about the unspeakable lifetime atrocities of serial-rapist and murderer Wayne Dumond.
I cannot support the Huckabee candidacy until he 1) stops blaming Guy Tucker and Bill Clinton; 2) gives a full and complete accounting of every single word he spoke and said in his meeting with the parole board, after which they voted to give Dumond parole; 3) gives a full and complete explanation as to his reason for favoring clemency despite the fervent pleas of Dumonds victims, one of these made in person, the rest in writing that his office very much did receive; 4) gives a full and complete explanation as to his reasoning for favoring parole for a man with a horrible murder and rape rap sheet before the Ashley Stevens case;and 5) explain why he thought DNA evidence was involved in the Stevens rape when there was no such thing involved at any time.
If he simply did not know the available facts, then he has no business ever again being in a position of high authority and responsibility. If he actually knew that DuMond was a lifelong criminal and pathological liar, and that his actions of support for parole were horribly exaggerated feelings of compassion (which as C.S. Lewis said-"costs a statesman his honor and a maiden her virginity"), Governor Huckabee needs to explain that point-by-point in relentless detail to a national audience.
It is of course completely ludicrous to assert that an Arkansas governor has no role in paroles or the parole board. Clinton/Tucker appointees were still dependent upon Huckabee for reappointment to their jobs.
I await complete candor on this subject on the scale of what Clinton should have said regarding Lewinsky, had he been a man of honor. I hope Huckabee proves to be such. I will be supporting Fred Thompson until Governor Huckabee can convince me that he is thoroughly intelligent enough for the job, and infinitely more compassionate for the victims of crime than for the perpetrators. His ignoring the pleas of Dumond's victims will take some explanation.
from NRO "...What actually happened between Huckabee and the board remains unclear to this day, but there is no doubt that Huckabee wanted Wayne Dumond set free..."
Sorry, but it is more than clear that Huckabee ordered an executive session of the board and dismissed or blocked the recording secretary from either taping or transcribing the meeting. This was a violation of the Ark. FOIAct, as a min.
Now in his PR, he claims it was just a get to know meeting and someone else brought up this case - total LIE.
Three of the board members spoke to Mr. Waas in an article (http://tinyurl.com/85a9r) and more recently on HuffPo. While technically, Huckabee did not pardone this scum, he lobbied for him at the request of a fellow Baptist minister.
...A more outspoken former member of the board has been Suttlar, who was appointed to the board by then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, and who had previously been an aide to Tucker.
“For Governor Huckabee to say that he had no influence with the board is something that he knows to be untrue. He came before the board and made his views known that [Dumond] should have been paroled ... “
Suttlar noted that just prior to Huckabee’s appearance before the board the board had voted 4-1 against Dumond’s parole. After Huckabee’s board appearance, her colleagues largely reversed themselves, voting 4-1 for Dumond’s release.
“Why did all the votes change?” Suttlar asked. The board members knew the governor’s position. And Huckabee knows what influence a governor has over a board. Who’s going to turn down a governor?”
Huckabee also claimed that he didn't have any counter evidence that this scumbag was still a danger to society. I guess those now released letters from the women he raped never made it to his desk - right?
Now Huckabee is calling these other people who were there liars. Who do I believe when there are 3 of them against Huckabee? I think you know the answer.
New files come to surface.....
Help counter or we are fish in a barrel as for our hucks creditbillity...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/04/documents-expose-huckabee_n_75362.html
With regards to the Haas article and letters, I will not attempt to dismiss the letters sent by other alleged victims, or question their motives. Rape is a horrific crime, and no one should belittle the sentiments of its victims.
I would point out that at least one of these alleged victims had communicated her concerns to the Arkansas Parole Board in 1990, long before Huckabee took office. In spite of this testimony, the Parole Board recommended a commutation of Dumond's sentence to time served. Later, the Parole Board would vote twice to parole Dumond, in 1996 and 1999.
There are at least three reasons the Parole Board and Huckabee may have supported parole for Dumond:
1) Dumond had been castrated, so there may have been some belief that he was incapable of sexually assaulting another victim.
2) Dumond's sentence was deemed excessive for the crime of which he was convicted, particularly given his record of good behavior in prison.
3) While the letters of other victims are compelling, the victims had not pressed charges. Without this and without a conviction, the merits of their claims were legally weakened and gave the Parole Board little to act upon.
The political motivations of Huckabee's critics and former Parole Board members are suspect, as Huckabee's website points out:
"It also assumes that, not only did I have that power, but that only two of them changed story about what happened and they didn't do so until 6 years later when we were in the middle of an election year. And after, and subsequent to the fact that I had not reappointed them to their $75,000 jobs on the parole board."
Source: http://tinyurl.com/ysmh89
I have not yet found criticism of Huckabee from the Parole Board members before the 2002 election cycle (i.e. 1998). Depending on when certain Parole Board members' appointments were ended, this would further prove that some jilted Parole Board members had partisan or selfish motives for attacking Huckabee.
to compchristian and anyone else wishing to center all the weight of Mike Huckabee on this one incident, one in which all involved would take back if possible. If you have not read through this Blogg and are just speaking from emotion, read it. You can see that the entire episode is a mess.
Governor Huckabee is not worthy of the excess demising being given by the few on this Dumond monster. Mike has the heart of a true Saint and the Strength of a King David. He carried out many death sentences, and denied many requests for clemency.
Governor Huckabee's platform outshines all in both parties. Every one of the mudd throwing candidates are knee deep in their faults. If you wish to center on one bad event around Governor Huckabee, you need to look at the four fingers pointing back at you. Do we need to open up that negative campaigning or do we want to look forward and choose who has the best platform for our future? YOu choose. We are surely with enough ammo on all the candidates.
The accounts of Parole Board members Chastain and Suttlar changed between 1997 and 2001. See http://tinyurl.com/26w9lf for details...
Be careful of what you say or Mike may send Chuck Norris and the nature book after you...So what, if Mike let rapers out of prision he has two great cleb endorsements and that's all I need...
How the Huckabee administration worked to free rapist Wayne Dumond.
REad the Arkansas Times report:
The Times’ (Arkansas Times) new reporting shows the extent to which Huckabee and a key aide were involved in the process to win Dumond’s release. It was a process marked by deviation from accepted parole practice and direct personal lobbying by the governor, in an apparently illegal and unrecorded closed-door meeting with the parole board (the informal name by which the Post Prison Transfer Board is known).
http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=154e1aad-fd18-4efd-8d80-b5dab8559419
I can't give much credence to these accounts by a couple of former Parole Board members because:
A) Their current testimony conflicts with statements made at the time of their decision to parole Dumond.
B) For the sake of argument, let's assume these Parole Board members' current testimonies are valid. What does this say about their integrity if they switched their votes for the sake of keeping their cushy political appointments? Not much in my book...
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