The story of Mike Huckabee's involvement in the Wayne Dumond case is a major problem for him. Huckabee lobbied for the release of the rapist who then went to Missouri and raped and murdered another victim. Dumond was attacked and castrated while waiting for trial and Huckabee apparently felt sorry for him. Byron York explains:
That’s where things stood when Huckabee took office on July 15, 1996. Last August, Huckabee told me he had his doubts about Dumond’s guilt, and also felt sorry for him over the castration attack. On September 20, just weeks after taking office, Huckabee announced that he intended to set Dumond free, saying that there were “serious questions as to the legitimacy of his guilt.” On October 31, Huckabee met with the parole board. Not long after, the board voted to free Dumond, but on the condition he move to another state. Huckabee was pleased, in part because — given that the board had voted to free Dumond — there was no need for Huckabee to commute the sentence or pardon him. So Huckabee denied Dumond’s now-irrelevant pardon application while at the same time congratulating him on his soon-to-come freedom. “Dear Wayne,” Huckabee wrote in a letter to Dumond. “My desire is that you be released from prison. I feel that parole is the best way for your reintroduction to society to take place.”….
……I asked about the “Dear Wayne” letter. Didn’t Huckabee want Dumond to go free? “I thought he would, you know, be clean,” Huckabee told me. “And he had a job, he had sponsors lined up, so at the time, I did not have this apprehension that something horrible like that would happen. I did want him to report in [to parole authorities], because I just didn’t know — you never know about a guy like that.”
As he talked, Huckabee looked down. “I hate it like crazy,” he said. “It’s one of the most horrible things ever that he went off and did what he did. It’s just terrible. There’s nothing you can say, but my gosh, it’s the thing you pray never happens. And it did.”
There is, unfortunately, more than adequate documentation that sexual predators are extremely prone to committing another crime when they get out. Bithead at BitsBlog calls it Huckabee's Willie Horton moment:
Look, Gang… Huckabee may be doing well out in Iowa, but this stuff is NOT going to play well in New Hampshire, once it takes hold. And lest we forget, Huckabee’s already in trouble up there. They remember very well up there, Willie Horton. For those of you who don’t recall the ‘88 election….
I tend to agree. The reason Horton sunk Dukakis is not – as the left would have it – that it was dirty campaigning. What sunk him was that people like Willie Horton – or Wayne Dumond – remind voters that who they elect makes a difference in whether or not the criminals are let out to commit more crimes. I think Huckbee's in trouble with this and I do not see him coming away with a win in Iowa. Or anywhere else.
This is certainly a bizarre skeleton hanging in Huckabee’s closet.
Bill Clinton is involved tangentially but still a strong connection.
The Sheriff that displayed Dumont’s private parts in a jar on his desk was a big Clinton operative who later was convicted of numerous crimes.
Huckabee is very wrong on a number of points when pushing for Dumond’s parole. Dumont had a history of sexual assaults and was even involved in a murder.
Aside from the 1985 rape conviction, Dumond had also been previously arrested for sexual assaults in 1972, 1973 and in 1976.
He also turned states evidence in the hammer killing of a fellow soldier while he was in the service. Bad seed and Huckabee let him loose.
You know why they can’t use DNA effectively in Arkansas?
It’s all the same.