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The man wanted for the slaying of four Washington State police officers should have been behind bars, but he wasn’t. Mike Huckabee, then the governor of Arkansas, decided to let the guy out of jail – a criminal with a very violent history. In a statement released by Huckabee, he decides to blame everyone else:

Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State. He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence from 1990, this commutation made him parole eligible and he was then paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time. He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him. It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior but was not kept incarcerated by either state. This is a horrible and tragic event and if found and convicted the offender should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Our thoughts and prayers are and should be with the families of those honorable, brave, and heroic police officers.

Let’s look at exactly what happened:

Maurice Clemmons received a 35-year sentence in the early 1990s for armed robbery and theft. His sentence was commuted in May 2000, and he was let out three months later.

The following March, Clem-mons committed two armed robberies and other crimes and was sentenced to 10 years. You’d think they’d keep him locked up after that, but no: He was paroled last March and is now wanted for aggravated robbery.

Huckabee commuted his sentence in 2000, then the parole board, which was appointed by Huckabee, let him back out in 2003 – only 3 years after committing two more armed robberies.

So Huckabee was directly involved in this case, yet his actions have no consequence? This makes Willie Horton seem like nothing. Dukakis wasn’t directly involved in the release of Horton, he just supported the furlough program that Horton got released through. The case of Clemmons saw direct intervention by Huckabee, which ultimately lead to his release. Even the wingnuts are calling this Huckabee’s “Willie Horton Moment”, but the evidence against Huckabee is much worse than it ever was against Dukakis, given Huckabee’s direct involvement in the case.