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Defeated GOP governor Bevin pardoned 428 criminals, SOME VIOLENT, in a spree lawyers are calling an ‘atrocity of justice’ (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Sheriff Bart
- Start date
Sheriff Bart
Footballguy
Bevin should be arrested and these VIOLENT criminals sent back to jail.
SaintsInDome2006
Footballguy
Why? What is even the supposed reason for this? These crimes are horrible.
Sheriff Bart
Footballguy
Because he wants to punish the people who voted him out? Also to pardon a guy for homicide that donated to him. Those would be my guesses. Bevin is another big time Trump supporter too.
Gr00vus
Footballguy
Look, keeping people in prison costs a lot of money, so he's helping taxpayers out here. Duh.
John Blutarsky
Footballguy
It is not misleading, it is incorrect. I have not seen what the number is, it seems like at least a dozen terrible ones of disgusting and/or violent offenders. But it could be much higher. I am sure they will investigate and provide more specific details. At least some of the 428 were legitimate ones that were recommended.
Zow
Footballguy
Honestly that's where I'm at.
I do think, and have been personally involved in, situations where pardons and/or clemency is likely justified. I strongly support wonderful organizations like the Innocence Project. I'd venture to say that there are probably 428 inmates in Kentucky that probably should be pardoned. But, like you, I'm wondering why these 428?*
*I don't have a WaPo subscription so if the articles says please advise.
Zow
Footballguy
Zow
Footballguy
John Blutarsky
Footballguy
Zow
Footballguy
It's the Washington Post. I take it you consider such to then not be Fake News?
I'll keep my rant here to a minimum, but, through no intentional fault of reporters, I will continue to insist that reporting on specific criminal matters is going to be inherently flawed and incomplete. I strongly encourage anyone to not reach a set conclusion about a criminal case based solely on a newspaper article.
John Blutarsky
Footballguy
Sheriff Bart
Footballguy
Title edited
TobiasFunke
Footballguy
TobiasFunke
Footballguy
I agree. But the lack of details is Bevin's fault more so than the reporters (who would need weeks to dig through the dockets and old reporting). He and his people could have provided explanations for them up front. They also could have given more complete answers than they gave to media inquiries.
For what seems like the sketchiest example (the guy convicted of reckless homicide and a bunch of other stuff who served only two years, whose partners weren't pardoned, and whose family threw fundraisers for Bevins) they simply said he "made a series of unwise decisions in his adult life” and that “his drug addiction resulted in his association with people that in turn led to his arrest, prosecution and conviction for murder.” If that's the standard for a pardon we're gonna solve that prison overcrowding problem pretty quick!
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parasaurolophus
Footballguy
He freed Micah Schoettle...
Guy served just over a year. Sickening.
I don't have any confidence he will be cleared. It looks like a few were in response to donations. Something slimy went down, but let's try not to put out fake news.
TobiasFunke
Footballguy
If by "fake news" you mean saying that 428 violent criminals were pardoned, I agree.
If by "fake news" you mean publishing this news article that makes Bevins look really really bad, that's entirely on Bevins. A mass pardoning on the way out the door that includes people convicted of horrific crimes is big news. The news media has no choice but to publish it. If there's a legitimate defense to what he's done Bevins should have offered it already.
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Sheriff Bart
Footballguy
timschochet
Footballguy
Surely there is a reason for this other than “I lost so to hell with you guys”? I mean yeah that would be really awful if true but somehow it doesn’t sound likely.
parasaurolophus
Footballguy
Zow
Footballguy
SaintsInDome2006
Footballguy
Zow
Footballguy
Zow
Footballguy
Go nuts. Should only take you a few thousand hours to get to know those cases well enough.
SaintsInDome2006
Footballguy
Zow
Footballguy
I think the WaPo is about as good as it gets.
But there’s no ####### way whether they know whether those pardons are justified or not.
I think posting the article is a good idea.
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SaintsInDome2006
Footballguy
Defeated GOP governor pardoned violent criminals in a spree lawyers are calling an ‘atrocity of justice’
Matt Bevin is no longer the governor of Kentucky, but his decisions continued to send shock waves through the state’s legal system this week after he issued pardons for hundreds of people, some of whom committed violent offenses.
Bevin issued 428 pardons since his defeat to Democrat Andy Beshear in a close election in November, the Louisville Courier Journal reported. His list includes a man convicted of reckless homicide, a convicted child rapist, a man who murdered his parents at age 16 and a woman who threw her newborn in the trash after giving birth in a flea market outhouse.
He also pardoned Dayton Jones, who was convicted in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy at a party, Kentucky New Era reported.
It is not unusual for governors to issue pardons as they leave office, but Bevin’s actions boggled some of the state’s attorneys, who questioned his judgment.
“What this governor did is an absolute atrocity of justice,” said Commonwealth Attorney Jackie Steele, a prosecutor for Knox and Laurel counties. “He’s put victims, he’s put others in our community in danger.”
“I’m a big believer in second chances,” Bevin said in a message left with The Washington Post on Thursday afternoon. “I think this is a nation that was founded on the concept of redemption and second chances and new pages in life.”
“If there has been a change and there’s no further value that comes for the individual, for society, for the victims, for anybody, if a person continues to stay in,” Bevin said, “then that’s when somebody should be considered for a commutation or a pardon.”
One lawyer said the victims of the pardoned criminals received no warning. Instead, Eddy Montgomery found out through news reports and rushed to inform families before they were blindsided.
“We’re pretty shocked about it,” said Montgomery, the prosecutor overseeing Lincoln, Pulaski and Rockcastle counties.
Montgomery said he was startled to see Brett Whittaker — a man who was convicted on two counts of murder for killing a pastor and his wife while driving under the influence in 2011 — on Bevin’s pardon list. At the time, Whittaker was on probation for a separate assault offense.
Steele said he was particularly disturbed by the pardon of Patrick Brian Baker, whose brother hosted a fundraiser for Bevin and donated to him over the years, the Courier Journal reported.
Baker was convicted in 2017 of reckless homicide, robbery, impersonating a peace officer and tampering with evidence for his role in a 2014 home invasion that resulted in the death of Donald Mills. Baker had served just two years of his 19-year sentence when Bevin pardoned him to time served on Dec. 6.
In 2017, Mills’s sister, Melinda Smith, told WYMT that it was a “blessing for our family to see [Baker] get sentenced.”
Steele, who prosecuted Baker, noted that Bevin did not pardon his co-conspirators in the robbery and homicide.
Baker’s brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Kathryn Baker, held a fundraiser for Bevin in July 2018 and raised $21,500 to pay off Bevin’s 2015 campaign debts, the Courier-Journal reported; the couple also donated $4,000 to his campaign at the same event. Kathryn Baker donated another $500 to Bevin’s 2019 reelection effort, the Journal found.
The News Journal, a local paper, covered the fundraiser in a story on Aug. 1, 2018, and ran accompanying photos of the couple with Bevin.
Steele said that when news of the pardons broke, people sent him the photograph. He said he recognized the Bakers immediately, that he knew the family from community events and that he had seen the couple in court for Patrick Baker’s trial.
Eric and Kathryn Baker could not immediately be reached for comment.
A spokesman for Bevin’s gubernatorial campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bevin said he pardoned Baker because he “made a series of unwise decisions in his adult life” and that “his drug addiction resulted in his association with people that in turn led to his arrest, prosecution and conviction for murder.”
Bevin’s formal pardon also states that “the evidence supporting [Baker’s] conviction is sketchy at best.”
“I have no idea as to what he is speaking of in regards to sketchy evidence or the conviction being sketchy,” Steele told The Post in response.
The state Department of Corrections confirmed that Baker had been released on Wednesday.
Not all of Bevin’s pardons stirred controversy. He spared death row inmate Gregory Wilson by commuting his sentence to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years, the Courier Journal reported. Wilson’s 1988 murder trial had been plagued by legal and ethical issues.
Bevin also pardoned Louisville community activist Christopher IIX, who was convicted of possession of a controlled substance in 1990 and theft by failure to make disposition in 1997, according to local reports. In the pardon, Bevin said the activist “has turned his life around after a rocky start many years ago and has paid his debt to society.”
Bevin issued 428 pardons since his defeat to Democrat Andy Beshear in a close election in November, the Louisville Courier Journal reported. His list includes a man convicted of reckless homicide, a convicted child rapist, a man who murdered his parents at age 16 and a woman who threw her newborn in the trash after giving birth in a flea market outhouse.
He also pardoned Dayton Jones, who was convicted in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy at a party, Kentucky New Era reported.
It is not unusual for governors to issue pardons as they leave office, but Bevin’s actions boggled some of the state’s attorneys, who questioned his judgment.
“What this governor did is an absolute atrocity of justice,” said Commonwealth Attorney Jackie Steele, a prosecutor for Knox and Laurel counties. “He’s put victims, he’s put others in our community in danger.”
“I’m a big believer in second chances,” Bevin said in a message left with The Washington Post on Thursday afternoon. “I think this is a nation that was founded on the concept of redemption and second chances and new pages in life.”
“If there has been a change and there’s no further value that comes for the individual, for society, for the victims, for anybody, if a person continues to stay in,” Bevin said, “then that’s when somebody should be considered for a commutation or a pardon.”
One lawyer said the victims of the pardoned criminals received no warning. Instead, Eddy Montgomery found out through news reports and rushed to inform families before they were blindsided.
“We’re pretty shocked about it,” said Montgomery, the prosecutor overseeing Lincoln, Pulaski and Rockcastle counties.
Montgomery said he was startled to see Brett Whittaker — a man who was convicted on two counts of murder for killing a pastor and his wife while driving under the influence in 2011 — on Bevin’s pardon list. At the time, Whittaker was on probation for a separate assault offense.
Steele said he was particularly disturbed by the pardon of Patrick Brian Baker, whose brother hosted a fundraiser for Bevin and donated to him over the years, the Courier Journal reported.
Baker was convicted in 2017 of reckless homicide, robbery, impersonating a peace officer and tampering with evidence for his role in a 2014 home invasion that resulted in the death of Donald Mills. Baker had served just two years of his 19-year sentence when Bevin pardoned him to time served on Dec. 6.
In 2017, Mills’s sister, Melinda Smith, told WYMT that it was a “blessing for our family to see [Baker] get sentenced.”
Steele, who prosecuted Baker, noted that Bevin did not pardon his co-conspirators in the robbery and homicide.
Baker’s brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Kathryn Baker, held a fundraiser for Bevin in July 2018 and raised $21,500 to pay off Bevin’s 2015 campaign debts, the Courier-Journal reported; the couple also donated $4,000 to his campaign at the same event. Kathryn Baker donated another $500 to Bevin’s 2019 reelection effort, the Journal found.
The News Journal, a local paper, covered the fundraiser in a story on Aug. 1, 2018, and ran accompanying photos of the couple with Bevin.
Steele said that when news of the pardons broke, people sent him the photograph. He said he recognized the Bakers immediately, that he knew the family from community events and that he had seen the couple in court for Patrick Baker’s trial.
Eric and Kathryn Baker could not immediately be reached for comment.
A spokesman for Bevin’s gubernatorial campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bevin said he pardoned Baker because he “made a series of unwise decisions in his adult life” and that “his drug addiction resulted in his association with people that in turn led to his arrest, prosecution and conviction for murder.”
Bevin’s formal pardon also states that “the evidence supporting [Baker’s] conviction is sketchy at best.”
“I have no idea as to what he is speaking of in regards to sketchy evidence or the conviction being sketchy,” Steele told The Post in response.
The state Department of Corrections confirmed that Baker had been released on Wednesday.
Not all of Bevin’s pardons stirred controversy. He spared death row inmate Gregory Wilson by commuting his sentence to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years, the Courier Journal reported. Wilson’s 1988 murder trial had been plagued by legal and ethical issues.
Bevin also pardoned Louisville community activist Christopher IIX, who was convicted of possession of a controlled substance in 1990 and theft by failure to make disposition in 1997, according to local reports. In the pardon, Bevin said the activist “has turned his life around after a rocky start many years ago and has paid his debt to society.”
SaintsInDome2006
Footballguy
I sometimes think that I am too blithe about these things. It's Friday evening, etc. ... But. Just looking at this point - let's talk about process as I understand it there have been 428 pardons since the first week of November, so that's roughly 6 weeks, right?
Do you think Bevin has a board or team of attorneys looking at this? A vetting process of some kind? That would tell me a lot about whether these pardons are justified or not. I mean randomly yes assuredly some must be just by sheer chance. But I do not think Bevin - of all people - has a serious process for determining on a case by case basis that roughly 70 people per week had legitimately pardonable cases, and that would presume there would be x:1 for every one he did not pardon as part of that process, so arguably that number being reviewed by him would be even higher. It just looks and sounds like 52 card pickup to me, and I say that with all due respect for the people who do get put through the wringer in the KY judicial process in the first place.
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Henry Ford
Footballguy
I’ve researched and believe I am aware of the evidence in several of them, some of which are cases I at least understand what he was thinking, some of which seem to be unbelievable pardons to issue. He appears to be unilaterally deciding that rape, child molestation, and murder convictions without DNA are conspiracy convictions brought about by an out of control prosecution team.
Zow
Footballguy
Henry Ford
Footballguy
My big question is whether some of these pardons are cover for others.
Like the convicted killer brother of a sizable campaign donor who was pardoned with this group.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/13/kentucky-governor-matt-bevin-pardons-killer-ties-fundraiser/2635847001/
Like the convicted killer brother of a sizable campaign donor who was pardoned with this group.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/13/kentucky-governor-matt-bevin-pardons-killer-ties-fundraiser/2635847001/
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Henry Ford
Footballguy
Gr00vus
Footballguy
Taking it from another angle, assuming that a significant proportion of these are justified, it would indicate to me that the justice system in Kentucky is really messed up given, then, that the outcomes were erroneous in so many cases. And beyond that, if all these corrections of the justice system were appropriate, it was pretty lousy and cowardly of this Governor to wait until he was voted out of office to apply corrections.
This would be worse than the scenario where it's the Governor unilaterally handing out inappropriate pardons, as it would belie faith in the proper functioning of the justice system throughout the state of Kentucky, not just in one misguided politician. It'd mean justice was misapplied at least 428 times statewide, and the only reason anything got put right was because the Governor lost his job. That'd be a pretty big slap in the face to everyone involved in legal proceedings there.
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parasaurolophus
Footballguy
SaintsInDome2006
Footballguy
This is becoming a big deal.
- KY State Senate - read Republicans- are calling for a federal investigation, and there’s more coming out about the specific cases.
- KY State Senate - read Republicans- are calling for a federal investigation, and there’s more coming out about the specific cases.
Sheriff Bart
Footballguy
skol asylum
Footballguy
A Republican Senate holding a Republican executive responsible for his actions? I'm confused.
Sheriff Bart
Footballguy
skol asylum
Footballguy
Gr00vus
Footballguy
cosjobs
Footballguy
Just a couple months ago...
President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that Gov. Matt Bevin — who has just three weeks of campaigning left until Election Day — has "my Complete and Total Endorsement, and always has!" Trump told his roughly 65.8 million followers Bevin has done "a wonderful job" for Kentuckians.
@realDonaldTrump
Governor @MattBevin has done a wonderful job for the people of Kentucky! He continues to protect your very important Second Amendment. Matt is Strong on Crime and the Border, he Loves our Great Vets and Military. Matt has my Complete and Total Endorsement, and always has!
Tuesday's show of support on social media isn't the only boost Trump is providing to Bevin's reelection campaign before voters turn out on Nov. 5 to determine the governor's political fate in Kentucky.
The commander in chief is also expected to visit the commonwealth on the eve of the election, Nov. 4.
From the last visit: Trump's visit cost Louisville $9,000. He hasn't paid it back
That's just the first couple Google results
President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that Gov. Matt Bevin — who has just three weeks of campaigning left until Election Day — has "my Complete and Total Endorsement, and always has!" Trump told his roughly 65.8 million followers Bevin has done "a wonderful job" for Kentuckians.
@realDonaldTrump
Governor @MattBevin has done a wonderful job for the people of Kentucky! He continues to protect your very important Second Amendment. Matt is Strong on Crime and the Border, he Loves our Great Vets and Military. Matt has my Complete and Total Endorsement, and always has!
Tuesday's show of support on social media isn't the only boost Trump is providing to Bevin's reelection campaign before voters turn out on Nov. 5 to determine the governor's political fate in Kentucky.
The commander in chief is also expected to visit the commonwealth on the eve of the election, Nov. 4.
From the last visit: Trump's visit cost Louisville $9,000. He hasn't paid it back
That's just the first couple Google results
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