JACKSON-Rickey Cole, Executive Director of the Mississippi Democratic Party, praised Democrats in the legislature for their leadership in working to reform Mississippi’s pardon process.There have been folks asking me to provide quotes from Republicans supporting or excusing Gov. Barbour's pardon spree. Well, the last two should suffice.
Cole said, “Long before this media circus began, Democrats in the Mississippi House and Senate have been working to protect Mississippi families and improve our system of justice. This will mark the fourth straight year that Democrats have worked to bring openness and fairness to the pardon process. Republicans have killed these bills in the past. I hope they’re finally ready to join together in a bipartisan consensus to do what is right and what the people demand.”
Cole expressed his concern that this might not be the case based on remarks by high-ranking Republican officials in the aftermath of Barbour’s record breaking number of pardon decisions.
"The outgoing governor has the right to do what he sees and what he thinks is good and fair," Brown said. "... And he knows more about the details than I do.”
–Republican Senate Pro Tempore Terry Brown (Clarion Ledger, 1/8/12)
“How does that affect his legacy here? I don't think it does. Of those 200, a lot of them are people that were convicted on selling an ounce of marijuana 20 years ago. They've served their sentence."
--Hinds County Republican Party Chairman Pete Perry (WAPT, 1/11/12)
Cole said, “I’m sorry to hear that the second most powerful Republican in the Senate and the Republican Party Chairman in the state's largest county think that Governor Barbour’s pardon decisions were ‘good and fair.’ Those aren’t the words of a party that has learned its lesson.”
"The best thing to come through Mississippi since cornbread." - Rep. Willie Bailey (D - Greenville)
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Friday, January 13, 2012
Democrats calling for Republicans to join their pardon reform efforts
Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Director Rickey Cole issued the following press release this morning:
Posted by
Cottonmouth
Labels:
Haley Barbour,
pardons,
Thanks Haley
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2 comments:
Listen, this old country boy was born at night, but not last night! This is some type of smoke-screen. Haley Barbour is plenty smart enough to know that this whole pardongate matter would surely stir-up a huge public and national media out-roar, and divert everyone's attention away from something else, something else that he wants to fly under the radar. The man is a lawyer, who was surrounded by a bunch of lawyers, they knew darn good and well what the state constitution said about the 30 day publishing notice and etc. There is much more to this than anyone has thought about to date...
Let me also say this please: Will the top elected leaders in our State Legislature, the Lt. Governor, the Speaker of the House, call upon their appropriate Judiciary Committee Chairs to conduct the proper hearings, in a non-partisan and open committee forum, to subpeona and or summon the citizens who were closest to this pardon fiasco, certain state employees of the Parole Board, the Department of Corrections, members of former Governor Barbour's staff, even former Governor Barbour himself, to find out exactly how this process went down, who knew and did what, etc? Or will they scurry away into the dark like mice in the night, hiding as quickly as they can in the cupboard from the tenant or owner? Time will quickly tell.
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