Mr. Cole said yesterday that he asked Mr. Huckabee to look into the case. “I think Mike was very torn about the whole thing,” Mr. Cole said. “I feel he felt an innocent man was in prison, or if not, he had been in prison too long. But he didn’t come out and say that.”
"The parole board meetings are public, but after Mr. Huckabee arrived, the board chairman closed the meeting to everyone except board members. What happened next is in dispute. 1 2
The new york times also mentioned the above about husckster!
arkansasleader.com - 08/01/2004
If you're wondering how Gov. Huckabee's hundreds of clemencies compare with neighboring states, get ready for a shocker. Huckabee leads the pack. He has issued more commutations and pardons than all of the six neighboring states combined.
Governors seldom reduce sentences in other states – and almost never for murderers serving life without parole or for rapists or for habitual drunk drivers, while in Arkansas it's a regular habit with Huckabee.
Other governors use their clemency power only rarely, while Huckabee has made it routine. As we've told you before, he has issued more than 700 pardons and commutations during his eight years in office – more than 137 this year alone – and more than his three predecessors combined.
Here are the figures for neighboring states since 1996, when Huckabee took office (and keep in mind the population of these states is nearly 20 times ours): Louisiana – 213. Mississippi – 24. Missouri – 79. Oklahoma – 178. Tennessee – 32. Texas – 98 (includes 36 inmates released because they were convicted on drug charges with planted evidence).
Total: 624 vs. Huckabee's 703
Governors in neighboring states almost never grant killers clemency, while Huckabee has commuted the sentences of a dozen murderers. "That is extremely rare here," said one corrections official in a neighboring state. She recalled one case in the early 1990s when the governor commuted a killer's sentence and none since then. In Texas, we could find only one clemency case for a killer.
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Although Huckabee changed his mind about commuting DuMond's sentence, DuMond went free after the governor met with his parole board. DuMond is now serving a life sentence for murder in Missouri, where, the record shows, it's unlikely the governor will pardon him any time soon.