Maurice Clemmons allegedly murdered four police officers at a coffee shop. He just walked in and shot them where they sat. Clemmons was shot and killed by police a couple of days later.

Mike Huckabee, when he was governor of Arkansas, signed a clemency order for Clemmons’ sentence, which made him eligible for parole. Had he not done that, one imagines that Clemmons would have had a tougher time killing those four police officers, since he was serving a 108-year sentence.

The ex-governor said he was aware of the long string of crimes that had put Clemmons behind bars, but based his decision on the defendant’s age at the time: 16.

You can read the full article on cnn.com, which notes that Clemmons was violent during the trial itself, had something less than an exemplary behavior record in prison, and was just plain mean. Huckabee points out, though, that he couldn’t see into the future. Had he known that Clemmons would go on to kill people, he obviously would not have granted clemency. That’s comforting. But maybe it isn’t really about seeing into the future. Maybe it’s about exercising something resembling good judgment, which Huckabee has struggled with in the past.

During his 2008 presidential bid, Huckabee was criticized for granting clemency to another inmate, convicted rapist Wayne DuMond.

DuMond later was convicted of raping and murdering a woman in Missouri.

Of course, Huckabee didn’t know that DuMond would go on to rape and kill a woman in Missouri (or that he would have been charged with the murder of still another woman, had he not died first). Huckabee can’t see into the future or anything. We get it — he doesn’t have a crystal ball. But he did know that Wayne DuMond had raped a woman. And DuMond had a record of violence and sexual assault. According to Wikipedia, prior to the cases noted above:

On August 8, 1972, DuMond was charged with murder in Lawton, Oklahoma. He committed the crime with help from two other men. DuMond used the 17-year-old daughter of one of his accomplices to entice the victim to an isolated location, where DuMond and his accomplices beat him to death with a claw hammer. Prosecutors did not charge DuMond after he agreed to testify against the two others, though he admitted in court that he was among those who attacked the murder victim.

On October 19, 1973, DuMond was charged with molesting a teenage girl in the parking lot of a shopping center in Tacoma, Washington. The second-degree assault charge resulted in a five-year deferred sentence and mandatory drug counseling during the five-year probation.

On September 28, 1976, DuMond was charged with raping a woman in DeWitt, Arkansas. The charges were dropped before trial with the condition he undergo counseling.

This is the guy that Huckabee helped set free when he was governor. And he helped set free Maurice Clemmons, who shot four police officers to death a few days ago.

Did I mention that Huckabee wants to be President? Yes, of the United States. Yes, these United States. I know, it sounds crazy. Not as crazy as letting every rapist and thug out of prison, but still.

If there were any justice, instead of attending fundraisers for his next presidential campaign, Mike Huckabee would be serving time for the rapes and murders he made possible, at the least as an accessory to the crime.  Mike Huckabee should not be President. He should be in jail, where he can do no more harm.

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