ARKANSAS' EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY CARROT - A 25 YEAR NIGHTMARE - Part I - Government - http://maxpages.com/darkevilworld/The_Clemency_Carrot_Part

President Bill Clinton; ex-Governor Jim Guy Tucker; ex-Attorney General Steve Clark; ex-Secretary of State Bill McCuen; ex-prison Director A.L. Lockhart; ex-Senator Knox Nelson' ex-Senator Jerry Jewel; Senator Mike Bebee; political activist Robert "Say" McIntosh and his son; ex-Attorney General Winston Bryant; Parole Board Chairman Leroy Brownlee; and convicted rapist Wayne Dumond?

Who are they? They are but a few of the actors on the stage of this story. They are even fewer of the names that should be placed into the list or that, in the near future must be added to the list. Eleven of them are "Good ol' Boys." Seven of them are convicted of felonies and other crimes, and all of them are a part of the reason that:

There is still quite a clamor in the free world about "truth in sentencing" and the public's seemingly insatiable desire for ever more laws and stiffer penalties. Indeed, the continuing demand for truth in sentencing has become a kind of social fad and by-word that, if the sensationalist media is to be believed, is ever on the lips of every citizen in the free world all of the time, as if every citizen's life is consumed by nothing but concerns with crime and punishment. No doubt that crime is a serious and tragic problem, but I personally believe that the average person neither thinks nor feels as hatefully and mercilessly as we are led to believe through selective and fear-and-hate mongering media reporting and the political platform building.

It was recently reported that yet another bill was being legislated in Arkansas by which to strike yet again to the heart of what precious little hope many hundreds of us, who have been "doing time" in the ADC for longer than we can remember have had. Senate Bill (SB) 112, introduced by Senator Mike Bebee, proposed that those who are serving a sentence for capital murder or another Class Y or Class A offense must wait four additional years to re-apply for clemency, if denied. SB 112 is just another in a long list of bills that once again takes the "clemency carrot" and dangles it five or six years further away yet again, just when we dare to reach for it. Worse, it selectively applies only to those prisoners who are most desperately in need of clemency in the first place, and those who are unquestionably most deserving of it. SB 112 will likely have become law by the time this article finds its way into print, despite efforts to persuade the current Governor, Mike Huckabee to veto it.

Before discussing why Arkansas' criminal sentencing and executive clemency system are inherently unjust, it is first necessary to briefly consider a twenty-five year history of the evolution of Arkansas' criminal justice system as well. There is a pervading and insidious misconception and error in reasoning and belief held by the public at large about what actual sentences are meted out for which crimes to Arkansas defendants, and how those often unreasonable or perverse sentences have been and are being executed. The public has been sorely deceived by sensationalist and deceitful media reporting for the better part of a quarter of a century; and has unwittingly condemned many hundreds of defendants to die in prison when, in most cases that was not the intention of the sentencing court.

The insidious lies spread by the media and a few politicians over the years have so poisoned and distorted the public perception of "the truth about sentencing" that it is no longer possible to correct the sickness of the Arkansas criminal justice system, except to comprehensively rewrite the criminal code and to restructure the entire good ol' boy clemency system. The real tragedy going on here is not that Arkansans have been particularly tough on crime and criminals even from before it became a national pastime elsewhere, nor that offenders are, in fact being condemned to die in prison by the thousands, nor that certain real injustices and evils are actually being perpetrated by "the system" against those who are the condemned. The inherent injustice lies in the fact that it is unhealthy, immoral, perverse and expensive for a society to continue to be permitted not only to believe an insidious lie, but to perpetually act upon that lie in courts of law. Arkansas jurors have, for decades been duped into inflicting truly unjust sentences that they neither understand, nor intend in most cases, to inflict in their sincere attempt to implement a better truth in sentencing by imposing what they believed to be reasonable, even if harsh, punishments upon those who had broken the law.

The most difficult part about writing an article such as this is the fact that virtually anything dealing with the broader issues of criminal justice, and particularly anything that seeks to make an appeal to reason, fairness, compassion or mercy on behalf of those who commit crimes, is inherently ill- received by the public nowadays. After all, this is the age of victims' rights, not of coddling lawbreakers. Consequently, there is little tolerance any more for any appeal by a convicted offender for the correction of an "injustice" that may have been exercised against him. Indeed, the sad truth is that even when the public does occasionally learn a better truth about things; about police corruption or brutality; about prosecutorial misconduct or judicial abuses of power; or about unconstitutional acts by officials - as long as these things were perpetrated against "criminals" in the process of "getting them to justice" it is generally applauded, not condemned by the public.

This spreading sentiment remains so until one sees one of their own sons, daughters, family members or friends become the next tragic victim of the lie in sentencing in Arkansas. However, even then, the only good "awakening" does is to land them on the other side of the fence, and then they themselves become the objects of the contempt, ridicule, hatred and malice of those who were formerly on the same side of the fence with them. Once someone's friend or loved one is branded an offender, they themselves are likewise no longer considered equal fellow citizens, but "allies of criminals." It is a bitter lesson being learned somewhere every day.

Beyond that, the public has also simply had enough of the fact that although many offenders have no regard whatsoever for the rights and freedoms of others or for what is fair and just, most often the very first thing out of criminals' mouths when they are finally held to account for their offenses is "You violated my rights!" Nevertheless, even as prisoners, I do not think that we ought to simply sit mutely in our prison cells just because the sensationalism the frenzied media and handful of twisted politicians are trying to make everyone believe that common people have lost all sense for right and wrong, or for what is fair and just. That is not true about society any more than it is true about prisoners themselves. Nor should we sit mutely in our cells year after year while new and ever more distorted laws are passed that seek to sweep the problem under the rug yet again, or to get the "clemency monkey" off the governor's back during his term in office or at re-election time, simply because it is not politically expedient for lawmakers and politicians to squarely face and to remedy the inherent injustices and nightmare of Arkansas' criminal justice and sentencing system that they themselves created.

Even though I am also a condemned criminal, I personally believe that there is inherently nothing wrong with harsh punishment. I realize that as offenders we have little standing to protest harsh treatment, or to expect much fairness or justice from others, considering that these are the very things for which we ourselves had such little regard toward others. However, because what has gone on for the past two decades regarding Arkansas' sentencing system and because what the public believes about Arkansas' sentences is, to a large degree part of an outright lie, some effort to expose the "truth about sentencing" in this state simply must be made, no matter that it might fall on deaf ears. Without it, Arkansas can never attain "truth in sentencing."

I also think that any reasonable person knows that there is a point where justice turns to injustice, or where punishment turns to overkill, even regarding those who have broken the law. If someone kills a snake in the front yard and it is obviously dead, there is little reason to hack it to tiny pieces and spread them all over the neighborhood to make sure that it is unable to revive. When a fly is swatted, there is no reason to grind it to cellular pulp just because flies are a repulsive nuisance. The similar circumstance goes for punishing human offenders.

CAN WE REASON TOGETHER?

I would like to briefly introduce some basic concepts which are needed to set the tone of this article and on which I think we can all agree. I think, for example, that we could reach a consensus that even those persons who believe in harsh punishment and in not coddling prisoners (whatever that means) will readily admit that when a punishment is inflicted upon an offender it should be reasonably tailored to fit the specific crime and particular offender and that it should be an "informed and intended" punishment in every case. Indeed, that ideal lies at the very heart of the criminal law itself. To state it another way, I think that even hard-liners on crime and punishment would agree that sentences should never be arbitrary or capricious, and both the victims, jurors and society at large - and even the offenders themselves - should be left with some reasonable sense that true, even if harsh, justice has in fact been accomplished. This ideal also seems to lie at the very heart of the public's incessant cry for "truth in sentencing."

That taken as a given, I think we could all agree that minor thefts of property or money are not as serious as rape, or that taking someone's life in a moment of anger or passion is not as criminally implicating as a cool and calculated murder for hire. In short, I think we all have a basic sense for the relative gravity of offenses so that we can agree that a person writing a hot check simply ought not to be punished equally to one who kills three people in a robbery, or one who steals money ought not to be punished more severely than one who physically and psychologically damages a child, ad infinitum. Can we agree on this general theme?

If so, a first truth about sentencing in Arkansas is that the sentences meted out on a case-by-case basis not only often violate this basic sense for fairness and justice in relative severity, but often a killer gets less punishment than a writer of hot checks! Additionally, someone who swears a public oath to abide by the laws and to protect the trust of the people is much less seriously punished when he breaks the law than is a ghetto drug addict who gets caught with his fix still in his pocket, or the guy who stole a few dollars or a VCR. Just preliminary facts. Stringing out an extensive list of real case comparisons serves no useful purpose here, but I think that almost anyone can agree that this juxtaposed and unequal kind of punishment does, in fact take place. I think that the only surprise an average person would get from an in-depth analysis of actual cases in Arkansas would be the sheer and staggering numbers and magnitude of them. Because of this state of affairs, Arkansas' prisons are bursting at the seams with offenders serving what even hard-liners would consider to be excessive sentences.

During the period of Arkansas' history across which this article spans, many figures key to making the Arkansas criminal justice, sentencing, and clemency systems so perverse and inherently unjust today, have themselves been convicted of a host of felony crimes. Some of these include former Attorney General Steve Clark, former Governor Jim Guy Tucker, and former Secretary of State Bill McCuen. There is, indeed a long list of others. Suffice it to say that the average person understands what it implies about "the system below" when even those at the very top of the power pyramid have become so corrupt. After all, every tree brings forth seed of its own kind, and every seed brings forth fruit of it own kind.

Other well-known Arkansas public figures were also recently neutralized and removed from positions of power and influence, even if indictments could not issue. In one case, it became necessary to re- zone several voter districts in southeast Arkansas so that a local power broker could not be elected again. Beyond that, the endless scandals and deep shadows cast across even the current President, Bill Clinton by White Watergate, Zippergate, campaign funding abuses, and China's "theft" of nuclear secrets continues to grow more foreboding with the passing weeks. Also, virtually every appointment Clinton's made in Washington to fellow good ol' boys and gals has perpetually been steeped in scandals of incompetence, shady motives and questionable activities. Indeed, since there is truth in the old cliche that "it takes one to know one", then if there's one thing sure about those of us condemned to prison, we know one of our own when we see them. The average citizen would shudder to look at their government through our eyes.

CLICK TO CONTINUE

Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook

LINDA TANT MILLER

WASHINGTON

USA

tantsy1@msn.com

Visitors: 02399

Page Updated Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:54am EST