Another round of headlines highlighting continuing controversies surrounding former Kentucky Gov Bevin's pardon flourish
In this post nine days ago, I rounded up some representative headlines and stories covering former Kentucky Gov Matt Bevin's considerable and controversial clemency grants as he relinquished power in December. As I mentioned before, there are many elements to what Bevin did with his clemency pen, and the resulting controversies have continued to rage. Once again, I will try to use headlines and links to numerous pieces to provide even more flavor of the grants and some commentary that has followed:
From the Louisville Courier Journal, "Working weekends, late nights, Gov. Matt Bevin rushed to issue hundreds of pardons"
From the Louisville Courier Journal, "Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin defends controversial pardons, blames outrage on 'political opportunism'"
From USA Today, "Republican mega-donor urged ex-Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin to pardon convicted killer"
From the New York Times, "Matt Bevin Drew Outrage Over His Pardons. These Governors Have, Too."
From the Louisville Courier Journal, "Opinion: Feds should investigate child molesters pardoned by Bevin"
From the Lexington Herald Leader, Opinion: "Don’t let Bevin’s pardons slime the legislature’s important work on criminal justice reform"
From Patheos, "On Bevin’s Pardons and Prison Abolitionism"
I would need dozens more links to adequately cover all the important facets of this story, and so I will conclude with a link to this effective piece titled simply "A lawyer looks at Bevin’s pardons." The piece, which is authored by Jazmin Smith, merits a read in full and it starts and ends this way:
Kentucky is one of only three states that have no form of civil rights restoration by statute. If you listen to My Old Kentucky Podcast, you’ve only heard me say that 100 times. That’s why pardons, commutations, and executive orders are so important. Only our executive has the ability to restore a person’s rights....
A few things have been really frustrating about Pardon-Gate. Pardons are good and so many people are worthy of them. This negativity may make executives less willing to use their pardon power and I think the reaction, especially by those who claim to be progressive or passionate about criminal legal reform, is imprudent and bad for the reform movement.
The way the media treated the pardons is also upsetting. The NPR headline “On His Way Out, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin Pardons Murderers, Rapists, Hundreds More” is extremely unhelpful, as is the Courier-Journal article that decided the 12 “most controversial pardons.” Many stories in the media also featured only interviews from the prosecutors on the case, and of course, the prosecutor wants the person they prosecuted to be in prison. Choosing to feature only interviews from prosecutors in articles about pardon reactions is just bad and lazy journalism.
Finally, Matt Bevin pardoned many people who have turned their lives around and have done awesome work, like Amanda Hall at the ACLU, and that is getting overshadowed. Horrific comments and racial data aside, I’m still glad he pardoned these people. They all served time, and though maybe some were more deserving than others, I don’t think the Commonwealth is less safe than it was before.
While I think those pardons are good, Bevin is definitely not blameless. Pardoning your friend’s kid and people who financially supported you is a super easy way to get the media to attack you. The huge reaction has been frustrating, but Bevin is the one to blame for creating it. The fact remains that Kentucky is incarcerating people too often and for too long. Any limits on the pardon power that come from this will be a real shame.
Comments
Post a Comment