Judging Huckabee's Clemencies

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The Wall Street Journal

Judging Huckabee's Clemencies
Prison Commutations Under Scrutiny;
What Role Did Faith Play?
By MARY JACOBY
December 24, 2007; Page A4

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- In 2004, Mike Huckabee granted clemency to John Henry Claiborne III, a man facing the prospect of life in prison for a violent crime spree committed 11 years earlier. The grant came following the plea of a prominent African-American evangelical supporter of Mr. Huckabee, then the Republican Arkansas governor -- and over the objections of Mr. Claiborne's victims, and the prosecutor in the case. As Mr. Huckabee has surged to the top of the Republican presidential race, scrutiny of his record here in Little Rock has grown. One element in particular is the high number of prison-sentence commutations and pardons that Mr. Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, granted during his decade in office -- more than a thousand, or twice those of the previous three governors combined.

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The clemency decisions go to the heart of Mr. Huckabee's message: part Christian moral conservatism, part liberal-leaning social conscience. Little Rock lobbyist J. J. Vigneault, a former political aide to Mr. Huckabee, says of his former boss's faith: "I do think it has the potential to influence everything he does." The minister who would eventually become Mr. Claiborne's champion began his political relationship with Mr. Huckabee around 1993.

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Messrs. Huckabee and Williams -- now both 52 years old -- shared a belief in a literal interpretation of the Bible and a strong opposition to abortion and homosexuality... Mr. Williams was part of Mr. Huckabee's network in the religious African-American community. Mr. Huckabee regularly won around 20% of the black vote in his gubernatorial races in Arkansas, substantially more than any other Republican candidate for statewide office. Much of that support came from his close connections with black evangelical ministers in the state, allowing him to tap their networks for votes, said former aide Mr. Vigneault. Over the years, Mr. Williams brought what he thought were worthy clemency applications to Mr. Huckabee's attention. "I would pray over them, weigh how heinous was the crime," he says.

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On the morning of April 1, 1993, according to a prosecutor's notes, Mr. Claiborne broke into the home of 72-year-old Cloy Evans, in a working-class neighborhood of Little Rock. Mr. Claiborne tied Mr. Evans to a chair and ripped his phone from the wall. He ransacked his house. He took a shotgun and rifles and headed next door. Vivian Allbritton had just come inside from hanging the laundry when Mr. Claiborne broke down her back door. He ordered her and her husband, Homer, a World War II veteran, to lie on the kitchen floor, and pointed the shotgun at their heads. He ripped the wedding rings from Mrs. Allbritton's fingers, according to her son, Greg. Mr. Allbritton, then 69 years old, started to have chest pains. Still, he tried to flee for help. But he slipped and fell, and Mr. Claiborne dragged him back inside the house and ransacked their home, according to Greg Allbritton and the prosecutor. Mr. Claiborne left in the couple's 1983 Mercury. A few weeks later, Homer Allbritton suffered a heart attack, his son says. After he had committed seven more felony crimes for which he was convicted, Mr. Claiborne was apprehended.

Mr. Claiborne went to prison on a 375-year sentence, which was later reduced to 100 years by Mr. Huckabee's predecessor, Jim Guy Tucker. Mr. Claiborne repeatedly applied for early release, Greg Allbritton says. Mr. Williams said he pushed for Mr. Claiborne's early release because his family asked for his help. "And I want to help people," he says, declining to elaborate. Mr. Williams says in general he would lobby the governor in person when he saw him at political or official events. In 2004, the Allbrittons got word that Gov. Huckabee was going to back Mr. Claiborne's commutation request. "It was like anyone who said they'd found Jesus could get Gov. Huckabee to commute their sentence," says Greg Allbritton, whose father, Homer, had died in 2001. Greg called the Pulaski County prosecutor, Larry Jegley, to complain about Mr. Huckabee's decision.

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[AndyTiedye]

1. And If You Didn't "Find Jesus", No Clemency For You!