UPDATE - SINCE THE WRITING OF THIS ARTICLE:
o SB 112 was signed into law by Governor Huckabee on March 9. 1999 as Act 498. This Act requires that Class Y and Class A felons be compelled to wait four years to reapply for clemency once denied (or, five to six years, given the application procedure and processing). The law was made retroactive.
o Another handful of Arkansas officials has been criminally indicted.
o After having continuously evaded being confined for several felony crimes due to his failing health, and after another probationary sentence was imposed for the last remaining untried offense, Jim Guy Tucker expressed that it sure felt food to be healthy again.
o Bill McCuen, ex-Secretary of State was released from his seventeen year sentence after serving one sixth of the term, also due to failing health. He, too doubtlessly also feels much better now.
o Wayne Dumond was twice denied parole, and twice denied executive clemency again. After finally having been granted parole, he could not be released because Texas refused to permit him to parole there, while Arkansas refused to allow him to parole within the state. His wife was killed in a car accident en route to visit him.
o Eleven more prisoners serving constructive life terms have died due to "natural" causes, "naturally" meaning due to denied proper medical treatment.
o An incriminating report was issued by members of the United States Congress regarding Bill Clinton's acceptance of certain campaign funds from Chinese officials, and regarding his role in China's theft and other procurement of military and technological secrets. Some accuse him of treason, and are calling for impeachment and prosecution.
And so, it makes full circle. 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. But what's the cost, and are you willing to pay it?
FOR A DISCUSSION IN LAYMAN'S TERMS, OF THE PROBABLE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF THE ARKANSAS SENTENCING SYSTEM POLICCY, SEE "APPARENT ILLEGALITIES OF SENTENCING AND EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY PRACTICES IN ARKANSAS" BY CLICKING THE SELECTION FROM THE INDEX.
              
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