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

THE DEMANDS OF A PRESIDENCY BID

As predicted, the newly constituted majority of the Executive Clemency Board suddenly began its traditional politician-pleasing puppeteering, and once again, virtually all clemency applications were summarily found to have no merit. This included many scores of prisoners who had for years been found to have merit by the previous majorities of the Board! Those members of the Board that still had a conscience and who wanted to do what was right and just either remained a continual minority voice, or they were designated as "part time" Board members, not even permitted to participate on a regular basis. So, men and women whose clemency suitability had actually only improved more and more with the passing years, were simply being rejected again. To me, this capricious state of affairs more than any other thing, evidences the real sickness in Arkansas, and the sickness in those who administer its system of backwoods, good ol' boy "justice." However, once again, the acute pressure was taken off Clinton...for a little while. A very little while.

At the time that Bill Clinton began actively campaigning for the presidential election, a local offender named Wayne Dumond had suddenly come into the public eye. He had been convicted and sentenced to a life term for the rape of one of Clinton's distant relatives, a niece, I think. Soon after his arrest, Dumond was castrated by a bunch of vigilantes, and his testicles were placed in a jar of formaldehyde and proudly displayed on the local sheriff's desk. Dumond eventually won a civil rights action against the sheriff and was awarded a substantial sum of money. He then used it to attempt to prove his professed innocence. Later, DNA testing seemed to indicate that the traces of sperm on the victims clothing or other forensic evidence did not conclusively prove that Dumond was the rapist.

Based on this vexing and politically untimely series of events, and due to the relentless efforts of Dumond's wife to get him out of prison, Dumond soon became a great embarrassment to Clinton. Virtually everywhere that Clinton went to give campaign speeches, protestors and pickets were accusing him of refusing to grant clemency to "innocent Dumond" only because his relative was the alleged victim. It placed Clinton uncomfortably in the Catch-22 of granting clemency and having it backfire either by Dumond's possible subsequent criminal acts, or by a growing number of "bleeding hearts" who were accusing Clinton of denying clemency to an innocent man solely because the victim was his relative. It was especially sensitive since incumbent President George Bush and presidential candidate Ross Perot were also actively trying to gain some political dirt on Clinton anywhere they could get it, including by snooping around inside the Department of Corrections.

However, Bill Clinton had an ace in the hole in the form of then Lt. Governor Jim Guy Tucker. Tucker had been one of those slick-talking, split-tongued "hard core", better-looking-than-his- opponents public figures who was especially malicious in his outward stance against crime and criminals, especially while he was Attorney General. Most people, probably including Tucker himself, had assumed that Tucker had gone about as far and high in his political career as he could hope for as Lt. Governor. After all, "looks" only go so far with Arkansas voters. Then, out of the blue, Clinton became a presidential hopeful and the windfall door was opened for Tucker to the governorship, and from there to who knew where! Yes, indeed, good ol' boy Arkansas was on the threshold of political ecstasy!

In order to rid himself of the Dumond problem, Clinton and Tucker apparently entered into the first of a long series of "arrangements" with each other to solve the various political difficulties that would attend the massive shifts of good ol' boy power, this time on a national scale. Although Dumond actually was not a political problem for Tucker directly, Tucker knew that if Clinton did in fact make it to the presidency, he himself would inherit the sentencing and clemency cesspool of troubles which he, himself had helped to create. So, Tucker agreed to grant clemency to Dumond at a time when Clinton would be out of state, and when the executive power would devolve to Tucker temporarily while he filled in as Acting Governor.

Dumond's life sentence was suddenly cut to thirty-nine-and-one-half years. It effectively shut the "free Dumond" protestors and pickets up, and no political fallout could collect on Clinton. Ah, but that was only half of the equation, because Tucker vowed that Clinton was not going to become president and move to Washington and leave Tucker holding the bag all by himself. No way! He'd help solve the Dumond problem all right, but reciprocal help for him with the soon-to-be-inherited clemency mess had also better be forthcoming! So...

Shortly after the Dumond problem was solved, in one of the most astounding series of events in recent political history, on a given date in 1992 every constitutional officer named in the Arkansas Constitution, except one, left the state! To my knowledge, this had never happened before in any state in the country in the entire history of the United States. Coincidentally, every such constitutional officer except the one, was himself running for public office in the next election: Clinton, for President; Tucker, for Governor; Winston Bryant, for Congress; and Bill McCuen for Secretary of State. But, Senator Jerry Jewel, the last constitutional officer to whom the executive power would pass by default by the Constitution was not running for office again.

In a window of time that was astoundingly narrow, a few hours at most, Senator Jewel was given the executive power, because he became temporary Governor of Arkansas by virtue of the fact that all the others were out of state. Within the few hours that he held this title, position and power, and in the midst of the otherwise serious business of the entire state of Arkansas, the most pressing and only business for Jewel apparently happened to be to call for the records of, and then grant executive clemency to four prisoners. One of these prisoners just happened to be the son of a local political "activist", Robert "Say" McIntosh (a perpetual Clinton embarrassment who would soon be convicted of punching out a CNN reporter at a Little Rock federal courthouse.) His son had just begun serving a 50 years sentence for major drug trafficking. Only one of the other three prisoners had actually served any reasonable time on his sentence. Worse, it had been an unwritten tradition that when clemency is granted to a prisoner, the sentence is merely commuted "to parole eligibility," not to outright release and discharge, so that the offender could be monitored in the community for some indefinite period of time after release. Jewel granted these men time served and discharged their sentences outright.

Throughout the ADC prisons, Jewel's action was widely applauded by inmates who perceived it as someone "finally doing something" about the clemency injustice, even if for only four persons, and even if three of them likely did not deserve clemency. But those of us who knew, or who believed ourselves to know a better truth about the sentencing and clemency situation in a broader vein, believed that this was all nothing more than a politically prearranged reciprocal set-up to inflame the public in order to allow Tucker to get the clemency monkey off his back by some means yet to be revealed, at least long enough to finish Clinton's term of office and then to get re-elected to his own new term. (Just like raising the eligibility from seven to twelve years had done for Clinton in the early 80s.) That tactic had become so regular since 1969 that it was almost a statistical certainty to happen again.

The reader needs to understand that the real dilemma with clemency grants to prisoners generally has little to do with any sense for justice or for correcting injustice. People like Tucker have little regard for such things. The problem is that often some serious and far-reaching behind-closed- doors obligations and favors are created by people with money or influence who, usually by reason of even more grass roots good ol' boy obligations, favors or money, agree to champion the clemency bid of some prisoner whose family "wishes it done." However, fellow politicians are then constantly lurking in the bushes to politically "take out" an opponent who dares to grant clemency. So, it is the fact that the politicians themselves are each other's enemies that creates the real "problem" with clemency, with the fear and hate mongering media thrown in as an extra bone.

As soon as Senator Jewel had "done the dastardly deed," back home came all the other constitutional officers who had temporarily flown the coop, all acting properly indignant and outraged over Jewel's unconscionable and unpardonable act. Of course, they all called for immediate clemency reform! The most vociferous being good ol' boy Jim Guy Tucker.

Needless to say, the reliably blind and dense Arkansas public went for the bait, and went into a frenzy screaming for blood! How could a relatively "invisible" politician suddenly be vested with the executive power and then actually dare to exercise it under questionable circumstances and for such questionable reasons? No, sir, this situation had to be rectified immediately, or off with someone's political head!

I think the real stroke of genius that such "criminals" often manifest (most of us criminals are just tragically stupid), is that Tucker had himself already instigated the drafting of the "clemency regulation" bill to introduce once the trick had fully worked. It just so happened that the Arkansas General Assembly would also soon be in full session. Tucker then wasted no time in introducing his bill. The Legislature immediately passed it into law as Act 5 of 1993, and under "public emergency" status, Tucker signed it into law faster than one could say "well done, good ol' boy."

On the surface Tucker's bill would in fact critically "regulate" the executive clemency process and create a myriad of excuses for a governor to sidestep situations like the one Dumond had stirred, or should the Board again begin recommending prisoners for clemency. However, the real benefit of the proposed law would in effect do for Tucker what raising clemency eligibility from seven to twelve years had earlier done for Clinton. By way of Act 5 a prisoner was now required to wait one full year to reapply for clemency once denied. This period really translated to two or three years by the time red-taped clemency gauntlet was run full circle. In practical terms, this served to "thin out" the staggering volume of clemency applications perpetually pending in the Governor's Office. More important, it also would allow Tucker to summarily deny almost 500 pending clemency applications in a single month, and thereby allow him to gain some "breathing space" for the remainder of Clinton's term and across Tucker's own bid for the governorship as the incumbent in the next election. In the dim and quiet hallways of the State Capital, the echo was likely heard, "We owe you one, Senator Jewel. Thanks!"

Although this distorted mess is a prime example of Arkansas politics in motion its real sickness lies in the fact that no sooner had Tucker succeeded with condemning hundreds of ADC prisoners to years more of confinement solely because of his personal political aspirations and agenda, but shortly after passage of his Act 5 of 1993, he was himself indicted of a host of felony crimes and removed from office. More, for the next couple of years he begged, snivled and whined to no end (as his ilk usually does) to keep from being sent to prison because of his poor health. He even tried to get one of his convictions overturned because the wife of a man to whom he had denied executive clemency had been on the jury.

Yes, indeed, after pertetrating the injustices that they committed against hundreds of ADC prisoners who deserved release, Jim Guy Tucker followed closely on the heels of his fellow good ol' boy felons Steve Clark and A.L. Lockhart. And, of course, the Clinton end of the saga is not yet concluded.

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LINDA TANT MILLER

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