Posted on 01/09/2012 11:45:04 AM PST by ScottinVA
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's pardon of a convicted murderer who worked as an inmate trusty at the Governor's Mansion came two weeks after the man was denied parole by a state board.
A letter to one of the victims in the case said the Mississippi Parole Board turned down 40-year-old David Gatlin on Dec. 27. The letter, dated Jan. 4 and obtained by The Associated Press, did not explain why the Parole Board rejected Gatlin's parole request. It said he was due for another parole hearing in October.
Shannon Warnock, chair of the parole board, didn't immediately respond to a message Monday.
Mississippi Department of Corrections spokeswoman Suzanne Singletary said Gatlin was released Sunday after being pardoned by Barbour, a Republican who leaves office Tuesday at the end of his second term.
Barbour's office did not respond Sunday and Monday to messages about the pardon. He has said in the past that releasing the trusties who live and work at the mansion is a tradition in Mississippi that goes back decades. Trusties are prisoners who earn privileges through good behavior.
Still, the move angered the victim's relatives and others.
Gatlin was sentenced to life in prison for killing his estranged wife, Tammy Ellis Gatlin, in 1993, and shooting her long-time friend, Randy Walker. Walker survived. The shootings took place in Brandon, Miss.
Walker's mother, Glenda Walker, said Monday that her son is afraid now that Gatlin is free.
"I have to watch him be almost paranoid when people knock on his door," she said Monday in a phone interview.
Walker said Gatlin shot his estranged wife while she was holding their young baby, then shot Randy Walker in the head.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“Nothing will ever be perfect!”
We have had people in the US who have been moments away from execution for a crime that they did not commit and it is not unlikely that we have executed people for crimes that they did not commit.
While, I am not at all opposed to capital punishment, I favor a better system to review death row cases.
Go to hell, Barbour.
lol. This is the guy that was touted as Presidential material. Why is it that we aim for these losers all the time? FR wanted Brown, Barbour, Haley, Condi, and so many other just to be slapped in the face. We will NEVER learn. They are talking Tebow as President in 2032. But how can we have him as President when we don’t even really know him. It makes ZERO sense to me.
Most likely David has pictures of Gov. Haley Barbour in bed with a young boy....
Sorry. That excuse doesn’t cut it. Any governor should know everything about someone he’s pardoning.
Besides, the parole board denied the guy’s parole just a week or two before the pardon.
He should have been hanged.
I take it that you agree with the governor’s position.
The injustice cannot be undone. Say you get a 10 year spell for bank robbery. After you get out, they realize you're innocent. Oops! Can't get those 10 years of your life back.
Consider life imprisonment as a replacement for the death penalty: maybe the prisoner dies in prison, gets shanked or whatever, dies of old age, loses the prime of his life, whatever. Oops! wrongly convicted! No matter that he's dead or lost 20 years freedom or became Bubba's girlfriend, it's okay now.
The risk is always there. Always. No system is perfect, but justice demands that justice be done.
You make a strong case here for your POV. But Death is a pretty singular event, from which there is no coming back in any form. That makes it more significant and accords the death penalty issue a special place in discussions of justice and law . Again ‘collateral damage’ is not an argument, it is a crutch.
Then the problem isn’t capital punishment - its the court system. I won’t argue with that...
Well, if we don’t find it, the MSM certainly will...
You both noted the same thing, “Why refuse parole to someone then recommend their pardon?”
Because parole means “release, but keep in partial custody under the supervision of a parole officer”, but pardon means “release from punishment, free and clear.”
This means that for some reason, the parole board felt he should go free and clear after serving 18 years.
Unfortunately, there are few if any details about his trial on the Internet, however, I have some suspicions.
She has possibly been cheating on him with that friend, and when they parted company, she intended that her husband have to pay alimony to her and their child, so that by not marrying, she and her friend could parasite off him.
I hear that, but if I popped someone in the head everytime they pissed me off the cemeteries would be full. Can’t have it. He should have been hanged.
Barbour's three predecessors, dating back to 1988, gave some type of early release or pardon to a total of 12 such prisoners. All but two of them had been convicted of murder. One was serving time for forgery and another for armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Interesting to note that TWO of the THREE predecessors were members of the Demonrat party. Where were the Demon rat protestors then?
If I were the governor, I would not pardon a cold blooded murderer. Barbour, I think, should have stopped this "tradition".
But for him to be the fall guy when governors have been doing for nearly a quarter of a century is bull****.
“Has he done things I don’t like? Absolutely. But so has my mother.”
— George Anich, Marine photographer in the 1950’s and a supporter of
President Bush, April, 2006 —
That wasn’t the question. Nice try at dodging.
What’s to dodge except trolls on a mission from the dark side?
Find a Flaw Destroy the Conservative Brigade (FFDCB)
Ok. You are an idiot. Get lost, idiot.
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