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Subscribe to RSSHaley Barbour, the Mississippi governor mulling a 2012 Republican presidential run, will issue the early release of two sisters serving life sentences in his state for armed robbery.
The move came after the NAACP mounted a national campaign to free the women, who are black. About $11 was stolen off the man robbed, according to the Washington Post and the women have served 16 years each of those life sentences so far. Three men also involved served just three years of an eight-year sentence, Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, told MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports this afternoon.
The Washington Post noted: “Barbour, who is weighing a run for president, announced his decision a week after he ran afoul of civil rights advocates. Last week, Barbour backtracked on comments he made about the civil rights era in Mississippi.”
So was his move politically motivated? That’s not necessarily the case. Barbour and his administration have been considering the commutation for months -- something Jealous, who praised Barbour for his handling of the cases, confirmed on air as well.
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But when O’Donnell asked Jealous about the racial flap (detailed below) that bubbled up last week, Jealous said, in part, “The timing certainly can be impacted by external events.”
Last week, the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard reported the following:
Both Mr. Mott and Mr. Kelly had told me that Yazoo City was perhaps the only municipality in Mississippi that managed to integrate the schools without violence. I asked Haley Barbour why he thought that was so.
“Because the business community wouldn’t stand for it,” he said. “You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders. In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you’d lose it. If you had a store, they’d see nobody shopped there. We didn’t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.”
Barbour, however, later responded to the magazine this way:
“When asked why my hometown in Mississippi did not suffer the same racial violence when I was a young man that accompanied other towns’ integration efforts, I accurately said the community leadership wouldn’t tolerate it and helped prevent violence there. My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the "Citizens Council," is totally indefensible, as is segregation. It was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi, the rest of the country, and especially African Americans who were persecuted in that time.”
Race is always a tinderbox in American politics. And you can bet it would be a closely covered subject in a campaign pitting the first black president against, as Barbour said himself, a Southern white conservative.
When asked about controversies surrounding Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele -- and whether he’s judged differently because he’s African American -- Barbour said on CNN, "When you're a fat redneck like me and got an accent like mine you can say, 'Well they're gonna hold me to a higher standard.”
Whether or not the timing of the commutations is related to politics, it’s never a bad thing for a potential candidate to have the NAACP saying good things about them, when they were being branded by political opponents a week earlier as racist.
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One of the sisters is being released because she needs kidney dialysis and Barbour doesn't want to pay for it. Can't commute one sentence without commuting the other.
Does every person found guilty of armed robbery in Mississippi get a sentence of life in prison or did they at the time the specific crime was committed? One indicator of justice is the presence of equal application of the law and sentencing for crimes.
Does every person found guilty of armed robbery in Mississippi receive the same prison sentence or at the time the crime was committed ? Equal treatment by the courts and the law is one indication of justice anywhere.
So Barbour says that the state of Mississippi should not have to pay for the dialysis treatment for the one sister. I don't want people in prison to have it too cushy but you do assume responsibiliy for their healthcare once they are incarcerated.
But if nothing else, it proves what the Republicans want to do to this country. This should be one of the warning signs. Do we turn this country into an Iran and let our prison population die of treatable conditions? Are we actually becoming what we abhor?
See 30.
I'm very serious.
But, Guvna Barbour does as he pleases with his minions, which is truly how he perceives constituency and really all people.
My question is why is he not in jail at this very minute since he blatantly admitted to the public of collusion and criminal intent to harm another through plea bargaining when it is not in his authority or under his jurisdiction to do so. Why have the courts not spoken out on this outrageous incident?
Once the media publishes an idea like this - some read it and it becomes accepted. Do you believe for a second that Barbour would like to stop here at this case? Oh no. He would like MS to become the wealthiest state in the nation enslaving prisoners or using them for body parts to buy their way out of debt. I'm not saying this lightly. These two women are an example of the unconscionable conditions in this part of the nation where the KKK rules all. These people have suffered so it is incredible. The poor of all races and African Americans in MS. The conditions are horrific in which they live. They have no hope. MS is steeped in hate crimes from both dominant races and racial hatred is incited by those in authority. They enjoy these hate games - almost like Michael Vick betting on dogs - Barbour places bets on people. The man is sick and should be in prison for what he has caused so very many people in his state. He oppresses generations of African Americans and poor men and women at the pleasure of the few in his immediate circle. It is unimaginable how the FBI has permitted these hate crimes to continue for so very long in the deep south of the United States. Not doing their jobs to protect American citizens who have been horrifically harmed by individuals such as Haley Barbour - taking powers to himself that he ought not to.
Further, it is outrageous that our president would not address this announcement and speak out against it.
Time for the rest of the nation to admit this is wrong.
Even though it would be a made for TV Presidential Race "Cracker vs. Community Organizer it's not likely to happen. The Republicans in power only want someone they can win with and Haley is picking up trouble like Velcro picks up lint.
Besides the MS redneck's are probably pissed at him for being too kind to these two felons <sarcasm>. He would probably lose his cracker constituents.
You have spoken some sad truths here. Like Palin, the Republicans have shown their strong desire for power outweighs sense. And - they expect the very intelligent American public to fall for their games. One party exploits the nation in greed and the other in programs.
Both suck generally.
Y'all need to come visit Jackson , Mississippi and see the crime here. We believe in justice here, and justice did come late. It's obvious re-construction didn't work and this place is a mess. Southern inner cities are in a state of disarray with little leadership coming forth. Being from Boston originally, I can tell you that there are more racists up north (Boston,NYC) than here in Mississippi.
MS believes generally in controlling the masses through oppression and poverty to near slave conditions. No offense.
I see no justice in that state whatsoever.
Bigotry and racism are not regional. California voted down equal opportunity for marriage. I see why you feel that way due to our history, we still have HS Basketball (Murrah) coaches whipping players and keeping their jobs ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2u8kDejU9I&feature=related
Hopefully the freedom riders bring some more attention this spring to the good work going on down here for change.
NAACP wants them freed? Put them UNDER the prison.
I dont think it matters what Barbour does - he is equated with the old south and all that that entails and he has nothing new to say. He will get the bigot vote, and the brain-dead vote but few votes from republicans who want to win the election. And its largely his own fault. He justs want to do a Fred Thompson - sit on his rear and spit out the usual nonsense and expect people to get excited - they wont.
Why didn't the Democrat (Muscrat) 2004, that preceded Barbour free these sisters !
Mississippi let's the same old people , black and white rule. We have a house and senate run by Democrats and Boss Hog controlling the budget, he has increased Govt. programs aimed to help African-Americans get jobs (workforce training, the state pays to train workers), he has appointed more African-Americans to State positions than any other Gov. His career in Mississippi should be defined by the great work he did on the coast post-katrina, raising the tobacco tax, not cutting education spending when the money wasn't there, but these are real things that bloggers miss. Mississippi and New Mexico are the biggest welfare States in the country, go the Mississippi Delta. if you took the delta out of the picture the States national rankings wouldn't be bad. But what has Bennie Thompson done for the people of central Miss...... zilch ! Time for some real Democratic leaders to step up...... if the State of MS is going to change
Slappa,
Thats an oxymoron. "Real Democratic Leaders" ??
As a white Southerner born to yankee parents, I have to say those who think everyone in Mississippi is racist is ignorant. Here in Mississippi biracial children and relationships have become so prevalent that no one even blinks an eye anymore. Yes there are still backwoods racists but I believe they are everywhere. My yankee grandfather was extremely racist.
Anyway back to the subject. There are no laws in Mississippi. Judges and lawyers and our local law enforcement make them up as they go. If you know someone in law enforcement you have it made here. The communities are small and everyone knows everyone.
What Haley Barbour did was a good thing for a bad reason. He is as crooked as you can get and I, a sometimes conservative, would never vote for him as president. Just look into the Fema contracts that he provided for his daughter in law after Katrina and who knows what else he is involved in. Crooked.
On a side note, I have called Haley Barbour Boss Hogg for years...just listen to the way he says Mississippi. Sounds like he's got sausage in his mouth.