Laugh at Liberals

HUCKABEE: WAYNE DUMOND’S PAROLE

I’ve done more inquiry into Mike Huckabee’s issues than any other candidate. As an Arkansas resident during his tenure as govenor I have first hand knowledge of many of the actions and positions that are now being held against him by conservatives, and you know what?.

The more I see him on the campaign trail, the more he gets attacked, by Republicans and conservatives no less, the more I’d like to see him as the next candidate for president.

National Review just announced their endorsement of Mitt Romney, obviously to do their part in quelling Huckabee’s recent surge. The funny part is, their endorsement is more like, We don’t like Huckabee. He’s bad. He’s not conservative, really…and, oh by the way we endorse Romney. Michelle Malkin’s column today is a mudslinging attack on Huckabee’s immigration policy and she pretty much says Huckabee is just a liar, you just wait and see.

What’s up? Are these and other conservative pundits genuinely questioning Huckabee’s conservative bonefides or are they so afraid of Huckabee’s viability as the Republican candidate that they look past the facts?

Right now the media is hammering Huckabee on the Wayne Dumond case. Let’s take a look at it.

WAYNE DUMOND: The conventional wisdom is that Huckabee is soft on crime and has poor judgement as evidenced by his pardoning of Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist.

THE FACTS are that Huckabee DID NOT pardon Dumond, he was paroled by a parole board consisting of Democrat appointees. DID HUCKABEE INFLUENCE THE BOARD’S DECISION? Possibly. Probably! But he had a pretty good argument for Dumond’s release.

In 1984 Dumond was arrested for raping Ashley Stevens, a high school cheerleader in Forrest City, AR, a distant cousin of then govenor Bill Clinton and the daughter of Clinton’s largest campaign donor. As you’ll read later, that may have had a bearing on Huckabee’s decision at the time. The judge in the case, who later became active in trying to help Dumond overturn his conviction, set Dumond free after sentencing to allow him to get his affairs in order. Before Dumond could turn himself in to serve his sentence, he claimed that two assailants broke into his home, sodomized and raped him and with a surgical scaple, cut off his testicles. He was found by his two sons, hog-tied and near death. The sherriff, who conducted no investigation into the assault and in fact claimed that the castration was possibly self-inflicted, collected Dumond’s testicals in a jar and kept them on display in his office. Dumond actually sued the county and the sherriff for this offense and won. On a side note, the sherriff was later convicted of RICO violations and sentenced to 60 years in prison.

In spite of forensic evidence and defense testimony that indicated it was not Dumond’s sperm found at the scene, he was found guilty of the rape was sentenced to life plus 20 years. I haven’t been able to find any other rape cases where a first time rape conviction carried a sentence of life, plus 20 years. There is no question that Dumond was a seedy character, having been involved in previous criminal activity, but none-the-less, he had never been convicted of a felony.

In 1992, after serving about 7 years of his sentence, which is way more than the average time served for first-time convicted rapist, the then acting Democratic Govenor of Arkansas, JIm Guy Tucker, commuted Dumond’s sentence to 39 and a half years, which is the act that made him eligible for parole. However, he was denied parole on several occasions.

2 years later, Huckabee was elected govenor and after about a few months on the job had his first meeting with the parole board. That meeting is where supposedly, this young Republican govenor, only months on the job, was able to launch his arm-twisting, cajole and threatening of the entire parole board of Democrat appointees. Curious.

Why would Huckabee even undertake such a course of action? Well, there were a number of people who were concerned about whether or not Dumond was even guilty. There was, after all, evidence in question. Some people were, at the time, accusing the Clinton machine of possibly railroading the conviction of Dumond to satisfy family revenge or payback a political donar. Certainly not provable, but certainly part of the discussion at the time. Also, there was an argument to be made that with all of the issues surrounding the case, combined with the fact that Dumond had already served more time any first time convicted rapist, a pardon or parole of Dumond, was not an unreasonable thing to consider.

So in October, 1999, after serving 14 years for the rape of Ashley Stevens, Dumond was paroled and moved to Missouri. Less than two years later he was convicted of the rape and murder of a Missouri woman, suspected in the rape and murder of another Missouri woman and he died in prison the day after losing his appeal on the first charge.

The real tragedy in all of this is the death of those woman. It could not have been predicted, in spite of all the brilliant hindsight being demonstrated by Huckabee’s detractors, who could know what Dumond would do? And what if Huckabee had not released Dumond. He most certainly would have made parole by now and in hindsight, probably would have killed or raped again.

Would all of these people who are pointing the finger at Huckabee have championed the cause of a rapist serving 40 years in the crowded Arkansas prison system? Doubtful. There are rapists and even murders who have been paroled in much less time, without the benefit of extenuating circumstances that called their convictions into question.

I’m not apologizing for or defending Dumond’s atrocities, but reality is reality. This was not just some namby-pamby act of liberal self indulgence. This was a govenor who was under pressure to use his power in a case that seemed to be calling out for it. And the fact is, Huckabee did not pardon Dumond! He as paroled in a 4 to 1 decision by a group of citizens who cannot use the argument that they were forced into it. In all likelyhood they pardoned Dumond for the same reasons Huckabee wanted to parole him. There was just to much that stunk about the case and he had already paid his debt to society.

It turned out tragically for Dumonds future victims, but does that mean Huckabee is unfit to be president? Absolutely not. In fact, I think just the opposite is true. His experience in the Wayne Dumond case has taught Huckabee a valuable lesson and there is no greater asset for a president than experience, both good and bad.