Matt Bevin's pardonpalooza--rapist and murders galore
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  Matt Bevin's pardonpalooza--rapist and murders galore
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DINGO Joe
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« on: December 13, 2019, 10:56:00 AM »

After losing the election and before leaving office, Bevin issued more than 400 pardons and commutations many of them for minor crimes but he also chose to wade into a raft of violent crimes and has raised the ire of judges, prosecutors and victim's families across the state.

In NKY, a man convicted of raping a child just last year was pardoned because Bevin said he thought it was a sloppy prosecution and Bevin didn't think the charges were true

Quote
Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney's Rob Sanders says it has been a bad day for Kentucky.

"Rape cases, child molester cases, murder cases where the victims have all been done a grave injustice by our former governor, and it's disappointing. I was someone that supported [Bevin] and believed in him, and I'm disgusted in myself for having done so," Sanders said.

“So, I guess Matt Bevin thinks he’s smarter than the 12 citizens that heard the actual evidence,” Sanders said. “I’ve got news for him: Child molesting rarely happens in front of witnesses or leaves physical evidence. If we didn’t pursue those cases, 99% of child rapists would never be prosecuted.”

In Adair County he pardoned a man convicted of killing his parents

Quote
Adair Commonwealth’s Attorney Brian Wright, who prosecuted Walker, said he was "disgusted, frustrated and upset" by the pardon, which he called a travesty. He said Bevin's office never consulted him about it, and that Walker agreed to the sentence in a plea agreement.

In Knox county he pardon one of three men convicted as posing as police officers, invading a home and killing an indidual during a robbery.  The one pardoned was the triggerman.  Why was he pardoned, but not the other two?

Quote
Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele, who prosecuted Patrick Baker and other defendants for the 2014 death of Donald Mills, told The Courier Journal on Wednesday it would be an “understatement to say I am aggrieved” by Bevin’s pardon.

Steele, who, like Bevin, is a Republican, also cited the fact that two of Baker’s co-defendants are still in prison. "What makes Mr. Baker any different than the other two?" he asked.

Answering that question, he said he believes Baker was pardoned while the others remain locked up because Baker’s family has given generously to Bevin.

Baker's family held a fundraiser for Bevin in 2015 and many family members had donated directly to his campaign

It goes on and on...

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/11/bevin-issued-hundreds-pardons-and-commutations-final-day/4399770002/

https://local12.com/news/local/child-rapist-released-after-just-over-a-year-in-prison-micah-schoettle-kenton-county-jury-kentucky-cincinnati

https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Commonwealths-Attorney-frustrated-with-pardon-of-man-guilty-of-double-murder--566115161.html

https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Gov-Bevin-undid-years-of-work-by-prosecutors-with-outgoing-pardons-566145431.html

https://www.kentuckynewera.com/news/article_c1a31eec-1c5f-11ea-b560-f7ed0ba79bdf.html
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Kalwejt
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« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2019, 12:38:22 PM »

Ah, the fine American tradition of eleventh hour pardons.
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President Johnson
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« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2019, 01:31:27 PM »

Ah, the fine American tradition of eleventh hour pardons.

Well, sometimes they are FF moves, like when outgoing Illinois governor George Ryan, a Republican, issued exeuctive clemency for everyone on death row:

Quote
On January 11, 2003, just two days before leaving office, Ryan commuted (to "life" terms) the sentences of everyone on or waiting to be sent to Illinois' death row—a total of 167 convicts—due to his belief that the death penalty could not be administered fairly. [...]

Wikipedia
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DINGO Joe
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« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2019, 02:00:42 PM »

Ah, the fine American tradition of eleventh hour pardons.

Well, sometimes they are FF moves, like when outgoing Illinois governor George Ryan, a Republican, issued exeuctive clemency for everyone on death row:

Quote
On January 11, 2003, just two days before leaving office, Ryan commuted (to "life" terms) the sentences of everyone on or waiting to be sent to Illinois' death row—a total of 167 convicts—due to his belief that the death penalty could not be administered fairly. [...]

Wikipedia

Well, that's OK, because he wasn't releasing them from prison unilaterally.

Here are two more from Bevin's final hours:

A man who hired a hitman to kill his business partner

https://www.messenger-inquirer.com/news/local/edge-pardon-shocks-law-enforcers/article_3b7321e8-186e-5e41-b4ef-3eb9b1a42208.html

A man who beheaded a woman he was having an affair with and stuffed her in a barrel

https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article238320918.html

Quote
The prosecutor on the case, Tom Handy, said he hasn’t been this angry in a long time. He called the governor’s pardon “mystifying.”

“I think its arrogance of one who has a God-like image of himself,” Handy said of Bevin. “And a lack of concern for anybody else.”

I think this hits the nail on the head.  There is a certain confidence one has to have in ones self to run for office, but Bevin has ramped it up to a meglomania where he thinks his judgement is God-like.

Again, in case there is any confusion, Bevin is releasing all these people into society, not removing them from death row.

It was noted in one of the stories that over 300 of the pardons were for drug related offenses and they were probably deserved, but Bevin did not support sentencing reform that is quite common across the country these days.  I guess he feels he has the great wisdom to choose who is worthy or not instead of improving the process for getting people out of jail who don't belong there

There's also been a stampede in the last 24 hours in KY to reform the process for pardons, from having a special prosecutor appointed to look into Bevin's pardons to preventing a Gov from making pardons after the election like Bevin did,
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Kalwejt
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« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2019, 02:08:33 PM »

Ah, the fine American tradition of eleventh hour pardons.

Well, sometimes they are FF moves, like when outgoing Illinois governor George Ryan, a Republican, issued exeuctive clemency for everyone on death row:

Quote
On January 11, 2003, just two days before leaving office, Ryan commuted (to "life" terms) the sentences of everyone on or waiting to be sent to Illinois' death row—a total of 167 convicts—due to his belief that the death penalty could not be administered fairly. [...]

Wikipedia

True. In fact both Paul Patton and Ernie Fletcher did commute a death row inmate's sentence during the last weeks of their governorships (disappointingly, Beshear did not follow the suit, although it's worth mentioning Kentucky is under an effective moratorium).

Ryan's commutation, although large in number due to the sheer size of Illinois' death row, was not an unprecedented move, as shown by this list:

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/clemency/list-of-clemencies-since-1976

Frankly, when Jerry Brown was about to leave the office, I hoped for something similar.
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President Johnson
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« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2019, 02:18:47 PM »

Tom Corbett when he left office in Pennsylvania in 2015, actually did the opposite by signing a number of last minute death warrants. Tom Wolf later issued a moratorium on the death penalty.

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/02/13/pennsylvania-governor-tom-wolf-says-death-penalty-flawed-imposes-moratorium/
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Stockdale for Veep
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« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2019, 06:05:19 PM »

Lame-duck sessions are yet another relic of the 18th Century that have no use in modern politics...
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Kalwejt
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« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2019, 07:08:37 PM »

Tom Corbett when he left office in Pennsylvania in 2015, actually did the opposite by signing a number of last minute death warrants. Tom Wolf later issued a moratorium on the death penalty.

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/02/13/pennsylvania-governor-tom-wolf-says-death-penalty-flawed-imposes-moratorium/

Yes, though these executions were unlikely to be carried out even without Wolf's moratorium. I mean, hundreds of death warrants were signed in Pennsylvania since the late 70s, but only three actual executions went forward, when Ridge was Governor. All three waived their appeals in order to get this over with. Being sentenced to death in Pennsylvania is essentially a life sentence, with the exception you are not with the general population.

Speaking of eleventh hour death warrants, Edwin Edwards scheluded an execution the day after Roemer was to succeed him. Talk about being a dick.
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Kalwejt
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« Reply #8 on: December 13, 2019, 07:21:03 PM »

Also, even in states known for their affinity to execute people, like Florida, you can see Governors issuing a flood of death warrants for pure political posturing, even though everybody knew these prisoners would receive an automatic stay with their appeals still pending. Bob Graham and, especially, Bob Martinez, were especially notorious in this regard, even earning some criticism from the "law and order" types, since it was a giant waste of resources. Yes, all the preparation, security, equipment testing done in anticipation of an execution that was not to take place anyway costs a lot.

Lawton Chiles was more cautious when it came to signing death warrants, which iJeb! attempted to use in 1994, but failed epically.


But perhaps the best example of such real life trolling would be Claude R. Kirk, who, along with Reagan running in California the same year, was perhaps the first candidate to make a death penalty a big campaign issue. He even visited the freaking state prison, shook hands with death row residents and promised to sign their warrants. He stated signing the warrants once in office, even though there was a judicial restraining order against executions in the state.

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Kalwejt
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« Reply #9 on: December 13, 2019, 07:44:43 PM »

Oh wait, Bevin actually did commute two death sentences.

Quote
In his last series of acts before leaving office, outgoing Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin has commuted the sentences of two of the state’s longest serving death-row prisoners to life with the possibility of parole. On Friday, December 6, 2019, Bevin commuted the death sentence of Gregory Wilson, whose trial proceedings had been described as a travesty of justice. Then on Monday, December 9 — the governor’s last day in office — he commuted Leif Halvorsen’s death sentence in response to a remarkable story of redemption.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/before-leaving-office-kentucky-governor-matt-bevin-commutes-the-sentences-of-two-death-row-prisoners
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DrScholl
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« Reply #10 on: December 13, 2019, 08:01:02 PM »

This seems like he's being vindictive. Some of these cases don't seem like the guilt of the prisoners was actually in doubt. If any of these people commit more crimes after leaving prison then Bevin is partially to blame.
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Hammy
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« Reply #11 on: December 13, 2019, 09:18:57 PM »

The party of spite and bitterness strikes again--just let the worst of criminals back onto the streets to terrorize the people as an act of revenge for not voting for him.
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Bojack Horseman
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« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2019, 11:41:46 PM »

While some of these are ridiculous, if I was the governor of a death penalty state I would pull a George Ryan and commute every death sentence on my last day in office.
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President Johnson
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« Reply #13 on: December 14, 2019, 05:16:20 AM »

Lame-duck sessions are yet another relic of the 18th Century that have no use in modern politics...

I don't think they're per se harmful. Usually, winners of every election need some time to get their personell together and prepare for their first actions in office. In the meantime, someone needs to head the executive branch. Legislatures obviously shouldn't pass important laws during a lame duck session, if there is even one. In Kentucky's case, the lame duck period (session actually only applies to legislatures) is shorter than in almost every state besides Alaska and Hawaii. Most new governors get sworn in in January. A number of states have January 1st like New York, in Texas it's around January 20th.

The lame duck period after the 2020 presidential election should be interesting if Trump loses.

It's interesting, though, that lame duck periods even differ within a state. The new statewide elected officials in Kentucky will be sworn in in January, not December. In Pennsylvania and California, the legislative lame duck is shorter than the governor's. I also remember in early 2015, Republicans expanded their majorities in the Pennsylvania General Assembly while Republican Governor Tom Corbett was defeated by Democrat Tom Wolf. Throughout Corbett's term, he unsuccessfully tried to privatize the state's liqour stores. However, a handful of Republican lawmakers were against it. After the 2014 election, they had the votes to pass, but Wolf was opposed. Some Republicans then suggested to pass the bill after the new sessions begun but while Corbett was still in office and sign it into law. It was a time window of about two weeks. Ultimately it didn't happen for some reason.
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Frenchrepublican
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« Reply #14 on: December 14, 2019, 11:24:16 AM »

He is really an asshole
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Frenchrepublican
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« Reply #15 on: December 14, 2019, 11:28:37 AM »

Ah, the fine American tradition of eleventh hour pardons.

Yeah, someone who is in the deathrow should not be able to seek clemency from the governor.
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Pollster
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« Reply #16 on: December 24, 2019, 12:45:23 PM »

FBI looking into Bevin’s pardons
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lfromnj
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« Reply #17 on: December 25, 2019, 02:32:06 PM »


What would this be for?
Bribery and corruption?
I mean being a dickhead with pardons isn't a crime but being bribed to give a pardon is.
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brucejoel99
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« Reply #18 on: December 25, 2019, 02:53:34 PM »


Follow the money.
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NOVA Green
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« Reply #19 on: December 26, 2019, 07:49:02 PM »


Good thing.... nobody likes a crooked Politician on the take, regardless of political party or ideology.

Here's to a late ironic X-Mas present to the people in Kentucky (Not talking about those legitimately pardoned for excessive prison sentences for things like drug related convictions)....

Kentucky used to have one of the highest poverty rates in the US at the time this song was written, after the automation of the Coal Mines, which led to a massive internal migration of Millions from Appalachia to the Factory towns of Ohio, Illinois, and Chicago, and even now rural poverty is still a big thing in Kentucky....




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JacksonHitchcock
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« Reply #20 on: December 26, 2019, 09:17:16 PM »

The pardon of the "rapist" shouldn't be controversial the victim recanted their accusation against the guy a few years ago and I don't remember the specific reason, but I believe he had exaushted his appeals he's already spent 15 years in prison for a crime it seems pretty likely he didn't commit to me that's a FF move by Bevin.
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Fuzzy Stands With His Friend, Chairman Sanchez
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« Reply #21 on: December 26, 2019, 10:00:48 PM »

The pardon of the "rapist" shouldn't be controversial the victim recanted their accusation against the guy a few years ago and I don't remember the specific reason, but I believe he had exaushted his appeals he's already spent 15 years in prison for a crime it seems pretty likely he didn't commit to me that's a FF move by Bevin.

This aspect of these pardons is something people don't seem to get.

If Bevin sold pardons, there are ways to deal without Bevin without eroding the power of the Governor to issue Pardons. 
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NOVA Green
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« Reply #22 on: December 26, 2019, 10:49:00 PM »

The pardon of the "rapist" shouldn't be controversial the victim recanted their accusation against the guy a few years ago and I don't remember the specific reason, but I believe he had exaushted his appeals he's already spent 15 years in prison for a crime it seems pretty likely he didn't commit to me that's a FF move by Bevin.

This aspect of these pardons is something people don't seem to get.

If Bevin sold pardons, there are ways to deal without Bevin without eroding the power of the Governor to issue Pardons. 

Agreed.... that's why the Feds are looking into it.  Smiley
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NOVA Green
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« Reply #23 on: December 26, 2019, 11:05:15 PM »

It still cuts both ways when it comes to Federal vs Governor pardons...

Look at the case of legendary Union Organizer Joe Hill back in the early 1910s in Utah when President Wilson called for clemency and the Governor sent him in front of the firing squads, in a State owned by the Mining Bosses....




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUR2PDTptO0


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill

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« Reply #24 on: December 27, 2019, 05:57:35 PM »

Ah, the fine American tradition of eleventh hour pardons.

Well, sometimes they are FF moves, like when outgoing Illinois governor George Ryan, a Republican, issued exeuctive clemency for everyone on death row:

Quote
On January 11, 2003, just two days before leaving office, Ryan commuted (to "life" terms) the sentences of everyone on or waiting to be sent to Illinois' death row—a total of 167 convicts—due to his belief that the death penalty could not be administered fairly. [...]

Wikipedia

Well, that's OK, because he wasn't releasing them from prison unilaterally.

Here are two more from Bevin's final hours:

A man who hired a hitman to kill his business partner

https://www.messenger-inquirer.com/news/local/edge-pardon-shocks-law-enforcers/article_3b7321e8-186e-5e41-b4ef-3eb9b1a42208.html

A man who beheaded a woman he was having an affair with and stuffed her in a barrel

https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article238320918.html

Quote
The prosecutor on the case, Tom Handy, said he hasn’t been this angry in a long time. He called the governor’s pardon “mystifying.”

“I think its arrogance of one who has a God-like image of himself,” Handy said of Bevin. “And a lack of concern for anybody else.”

I think this hits the nail on the head.  There is a certain confidence one has to have in ones self to run for office, but Bevin has ramped it up to a meglomania where he thinks his judgement is God-like.

Again, in case there is any confusion, Bevin is releasing all these people into society, not removing them from death row.

It was noted in one of the stories that over 300 of the pardons were for drug related offenses and they were probably deserved, but Bevin did not support sentencing reform that is quite common across the country these days.  I guess he feels he has the great wisdom to choose who is worthy or not instead of improving the process for getting people out of jail who don't belong there

There's also been a stampede in the last 24 hours in KY to reform the process for pardons, from having a special prosecutor appointed to look into Bevin's pardons to preventing a Gov from making pardons after the election like Bevin did,

This hits the nail on the head. The biggest concern everyone has about Bevins pardons is the apparent complete lack of Rhyme or Reason, or at worst some indication that campaign contributions helped in multiple cases.

This wasn't based on some philosophical belief of judicial reform or counteracting out-of-date Draconian drug laws, or even a handful of selected cases where there is at least some reasonable argument outside his head that Justice wasn't done due to the special facts or circumstances of the case. It's like he went willingly deciding on a purely half-assed and undoubtedly rushed manner who gets the benefit of his being governor. And again, at worst, there are multiple instances that's smell like it was a reward for campaign donors.

His actions have threatened the very legitimate power of the governor to issue pardons, because he basically abused all the Notions and norms for how and when it is supposed to be used. Even is a lame duck he can't help but f*** up completely.
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