The GOP Pardon Problem
Remember the story of Maurice Clemmons? He was a man that executed four Washington State police. Clemmons was essentially serving a life sentence in Louisiana for a series of burglaries, rape and a bunch of other nasty crimes. Well he was until then-governor, Mike Huckabee, decided to commute the sentence of Clemmons. After that he went to Washington and gunned down four police officers.
There's a reason for this trip down memory lane. Tomorrow morning former Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty, is going to announce his run for the White House in 2012. Pawlenty, like his fellow Republican former governor Mike Huckabee, also has a problem with not taking crimes seriously (h/t Kos):
Jeremy Giefer served time in jail in 1994 for having sex with a 14-year-old girl. But you wouldn't know it to look at the record of the man now charged with sexually molesting his daughter more than 250 times over the last eight years.
That's because two years ago, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Attorney General Lori Swanson, and then-Chief Justice Eric Magnuson unanimously voted to wipe Giefer's record clean, granting him a pardon extraordinary.
One reason Giefer wanted his record cleared? His wife wanted to open a childcare center in the house where they live--the same house where Giefer allegedly molested his young daughter throughout the six years prior.
So what happened with Giefer? Well:
