Huckabee Is Lying

by tristero

[UPDATED]


Huckabee is lying. He was deeply involved in the release of Wayne Dumond, the serial rapist who, upon his release, raped and murdered at least one woman. And the mainstream press - by refusing to do even the most basic investigation into the Huckabee case - is colluding with Huckabee in his lies. By the press, we're not talking a loony tune like Malkin but the oh-so-respected Gail Collins of the oh-so-mainstream New York Times bending over backwards to absolve Huckabee. Those fluffing Huckabee aren't the likes of James Guckert pretending to be a reporter instead of a hooker, but the Associated Press failing to report facts, just taking Huckabee at his word.

Here's the truth
about the extraordinary steps Gov. Mike Huckabee took to help win Dumond's freedom. He has since blamed others for Dumond's release to kill again, but his actions over many years demonstrated his support for Dumond and, ultimately, the instrumental role he played in the parole board's decision to free him.
The truth is that Wayne Dumond was a rightwing cause celebre. They thought Dumond, who was in jail for the rape of a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, was a victim of Clinton's vengeance and may have been innocent. In fact, Dumond had a long history of violence, including involvement with murder, as well as sex crimes before his incarceration for the rape of Clinton's distant relative. And Dumond was positively identified by his victim.

Regarding his influence with the parole board, a former member said:
“For Governor Huckabee to say that he had no influence with the board is something that he knows to be untrue. He came before the board and made his views known that [Dumond] should have been paroled ... “
Huckabee, as you will discover if you read the article, never bothered to find out the truth about Wayne Dumond. He simply did the bidding of the most extreme rightwing operatives, going so far as to write a "Dear Wayne" letter to the rapist and murderer:
On the day of the vote, Huckabee released a statement in support of the board’s action: “I concur with the board’s action and hope the lives of all those involved can move forward. The action of the board accomplishes what I sought to do in considering an earlier request for commutation ...

“In light of the action of the board, my original intent to commute the sentence to time served is no longer relevant.”

Huckabee’s office then released a letter to Dumond denying his application for a pardon.

“Dear Wayne,” Huckabee wrote, “I have reviewed your applications for executive clemency, specifically a commutation and/or pardon. ... My desire is that you be released from prison. I feel now that parole is the best way for your reintegration into society. ... Therefore, after careful consideration ... I have denied your applications.”

Huckabee was able to achieve what he wanted to do in the first place: Release Dumond from prison with no apparent political cost to the governor.
What about Huckabee's claim that the release of Huckabee was really Tucker and, more importantly, Clinton's fault?

It's another lie. Here is an article from the Village Voice written right after Huckabee freed Dumond, in that brief period befor it is known he began raping again, and started killing. The article's subhead is "A Pardon That Clinton Didn't Grant":
As Clinton was abandoning Arkansas for national politics, he stymied DuMond's release from prison, ignoring the judgment of his own parole board in June 1990 that DuMond's continued incarceration was a "miscarriage of justice..."
Regarding Jim Guy Tucker:
In late 1991, on the campaign trail, Clinton began to be pestered about the DuMond case. Recusing himself, in April Clinton turned over the matter to his lieutenant governor, Jim Guy Tucker. Unlike Clinton, Tucker read every word of DuMond's voluminous file, a DuMond lawyer told the Voice. Tucker promptly reduced DuMond's sentence, making him eligible for parole. Seven years later Republican governor Mike Huckabee signed DuMond's release papers.
Huckabee screwed up royally. Unlike Clinton, and unlike Tucker, he enthusiastically maneuvered for the release of a serial rapist and murderer. Let me say it plain:

The evidence in no way supports Huckabee assertions that he wasn't involved in the release of Dumond but the exact opposite. Huckabee worked hard to release a convicted rapist from prison for one reason only: because extreme rightwing operatives believed that Bill Clinton had unfairly persecuted an innocent man - possibly even ordering the rapist's castration - in order to advance his career. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even the supposed attack that led to his castration is doubtful, as Gene Lyons discussed. And once Huckabee released him, Dumond raped and killed at least one woman, and was implicated in a second.

And that is the truth.

[UPDATE: Let's drive the point home. Here is the odious Steve Dunleavy in June, 1996:
"The new Governor, Mike Huckabee, has assured me Wayne will be a free man," Mrs. Dumond said Thursday. "He is not one of the Clinton crowd. He is a very fair man. He has always been disturbed about the way the Clinton people never wanted my husband free," she added. And there was a very good reason for the Clinton people not wanting her husband to go free.

THE CHARGES

The story of Wayne Dumond is not for the innocent eyes of the young, but every adult of voting age should read closely. These are the cold facts as an Arkansas court saw it: A 17 year-old girl says she was kidnapped and raped on Sept. 11, 1984, in Forrest City, Ark. Dumond, father of six, Vietnam veteran, churchgoer, was convicted in August 1985 of the rape. He was sentenced to life PLUS 20 years. An appeal by Dumond, under Gov. Clinton, got a response of: "No merit."

---

After 4.5 years, with his freedom gone, his manhood gone, a five-person parole board recommended that Dumond go free for time served. John R. Steer, managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, records the following reaction from then Gov. Clinton: "Clinton had a romping, stomping fit. The victim was a distant cousin and St. Francis County [where this all took place] had a lot of votes and he deeply resented the pressure to free Dumond." Clinton refused to sign a release. And Dumond rotted.

---

"Sometimes, " said Mrs. Dumond, "I just want to give up. But now, who knows? The new governor [Huckabee] has personally assured me that Wayne's case will be the first thing on his desk, after he clears up everything from this Whitewater thing."

Dwayne Harris, a spokesman for Huckabee, the Republican lieutenant governor who will succeed Democrat Tucker, told me Friday that Huckabee " has voiced a very special intention to thoroughly review the case of Wayne Dumond."
(Note: I will gladly link directly to the original NY Post article if anyone has a link.) BTW, much of the apparent exculpatory evidence Dunleavy discusses comes from Dumond and only Dumond. And, as Murray Waas says:
Much of what Dunleavy has written about the Dumond saga has been either unverified or is demonstrably untrue. Dunleavy has all but accused Ashley Stevens of having fabricated her rape, derisively referring to her in one column as a "so-called victim," and brusquely asserting in another, "That rape never happened."

The columnist wrote that Dumond was a "Vietnam veteran with no record" when in fact he did have a criminal record. He claimed there existed DNA evidence by "one of the most respected DNA experts in the country" to exonerate Dumond, even though there was no such evidence. He wrote that Bill Clinton had personally intervened to keep Dumond in prison, even though Clinton had recused himself in 1990 from any involvement in the case because of his distant relationship with Stevens.]
[UPDATE II: The second to last sentence was revised for clarity.]

[UPDATE III: Here's some more:
A Huckabee researcher reportedly attempted to refute some of the statements. He was unsuccessful. He tried, for example, to say Huckabee had never met with the Parole Board. The Parole Board members quickly dispensed with that nonsense. And it was noted that Huckabee's recent book baldly misstates that Dumond died before being convicted of any murders in Missouri. He was convicted in one and was a prime suspect in another similar killing when he died in prison.]