Monday, February 28, 2011

Pawlenty's Pardon Problem

I have been very vocal in blasting Huckabee for his terrible record of pardons/commutations. So it is only fair for me to point out Pawlenty has a problem with a pardon as well.
Pawlenty was part of a three-person board that pardoned Jeremy Giefer. Giefer was 19 when he was charged in 1993 with having sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend, whom he later married. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail; he had served his time and was free when the pardon was granted. Giefer is now charged with sexually abusing another girl more than 250 times both before and after he was pardoned in 2008.
The other members of the state pardons board were Attorney General Lori Swanson, a Democrat, and Eric Magnuson, who was then chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Pawlenty spokesman Bruce Gordon noted the vote was unanimous but also said the board would not have pardoned Giefer if it had known about the new allegations.
Full story
Huckabee claims to have read piles of documents of Clemmons misconduct while in prison, including Clemmons possessing a weapon, before granting clemmency. Pawlenty, however, was unaware of Giefer sexually abusing his next victim. Still, there is such a high rate of recidivism in sexual predators that to be safe, Pawlenty should probably have not granted pardon. I don't think, though, that Pawlenty's pardon problem comes anywhere close to being as big of a problem as Huck's

3 comments:

OhioJOE said...

First of all, while I often disagree with you, I congradulate you for your promotion to FPP. While I am not against Mr. Pawlenty on most issues, I have to agree with you here that this particular pardon is rather troubling. There are few things worse than sexual assult.

Anonymous said...

Thanks OJ.

Carmelo Junior said...

Huckabee is toast and with no chances to win the nomination or becoming president and he knows it. Yet, he stands a chance to be competitive in Iowa against Palin. Iowa voters vote for who they think is funny and likeble not for who is strong or conservative.
But Palin could be able to bring a huge turn out and excitement and run away with the caucuses.
Huckabee is in just for Iowa. After that(even if he wins it) he is done and might end up being just a spoiler in the race.