Only on FOX16: Huckabee reacts to police shootings

Maurice Clemmons run of crime in Arkansas began in Little Rock 20 years ago.  He was sentenced to 105 years in prison for multiple robberies and burglaries in 1990. 

Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley says the stack of clemency proclamations on his desk, he estimates over 700 in an eight year span from 1996 to 2004, shows Arkansas's former governor used the power too much. 

"Mike Huckabee and only Mike Huckabee signed his name on a proclamation that said this man [Maurice Clemmons] should be immediately parole eligible,"  Jegley says.  "And he was made immediately parole eligible over our strenuous objection."

After taping for the O’Reilly Factor Huckabee told FOX16 News that Clemmons release was a failure of more than just the criminal justice system here and in Washington.  "That individual failed, he failed terribly and I think the system somewhere broke down that he continued to be able to get on the streets," Huckabee said.

Pulaski County 1st Division Circuit Judge Marion Humphrey says he added comments to Clemmons application for clemency in 2000.  In part because he'd already served 10 years and was 17 when he entered prison.  "I take responsibility for the role I played in it,"  Humphrey says.  "I have deep regrets for what has happened to the families of the victims in the state of Washington."

Then in June 2004, shortly after being paroled from the Varner Unit in the Arkansas Department of Corrections for a 2001 robbery conviction in Ouachita County, Clemmons came from the Seattle area to Little Rock with Nicole Smith and asked Judge Humphrey to marry them.  

"Looking at that picture that doesn't look like someone who's going to go out and shoot four police officers," Humphrey said.

Jegley says this case is a tragic example of why violent offenders should serve longer sentences before being allowed to be set free.  "That's very disturbing because there are commutations and clemency for people [that Huckabee agreed to be released] that are dangerous and will be dangerous in my book forever," Jegley says.

The issue of clemency granting was an issue until 2004 when Jegley says he voiced his opposition and Huckabee cut back on the amount he approved.  Speaking with reporters Monday, Jegley said Arkansas' clemency proclamations from 1996-2004 outpaced clemencies for all the states surrounding it combined. 

Records with the Secretary of State's office shows Huckabee granted clemency in 163 cases in his 10 1/2 years as governor.  By contrast, in three years as governor, Mike Beebe has approved one clemency application.