Adrienne Klasky, from The Sun Herald
Adrienne Klasky. Chances are you know the name of Haley Barbour, but have never heard of her. Who is she?
Adrienne was shot in Pascagoula, MS, in 1989 by her husband, Michael David Graham.
"Witnesses said Graham stalked Klasky for three years before pulling up next to her at a Pascagoula intersection and shooting her in the head as she waited for a light to change.
Graham surrendered to authorities 15 minutes after pulling the trigger of the 12-gauge shotgun. " (from cbsnews.com)
And in 2008, Michael David Graham, who murdered the mother of his own children, was released from prison by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.
That is not all. Barbour is fond of releasing criminals. The release of the Scott sisters may mark the first seemingly just release of convicted felons by the governor.
Consider this from the New York Times:
"The Mississippi Department of Corrections confirmed Governor Barbour’s role in the five cases, noting that the specific orders were signed July 16, 2008:
• Bobby Hays Clark was pardoned by the governor. He was serving a long sentence for manslaughter and aggravated assault, having shot and killed a former girlfriend and badly beaten her boyfriend.
• Michael David Graham had his life sentence for murder suspended by Governor Barbour. Graham had stalked his ex-wife, Adrienne Klasky, for years before shooting her to death as she waited for a traffic light in downtown Pascagoula.
• Clarence Jones was pardoned by the governor. He had murdered his former girlfriend in 1992, stabbing her 22 times. He had already had his life sentence suspended by a previous governor, Ronnie Musgrove.
• Paul Joseph Warnock was pardoned by Governor Barbour. He was serving life for the murder of his girlfriend in 1989. According to Slate, Warnock shot his girlfriend in the back of the head while she was sleeping.
• William James Kimble was pardoned by Governor Barbour. He was serving life for the murder and robbery of an elderly man in 1991.
Radley Balko, in an article for Slate, noted that none of the five men were given relief because of concerns that they had been unfairly treated by the criminal justice system. There were no questions about their guilt or the fairness of the proceedings against them. But they did have one thing in common. All, as Mr. Balko pointed out, had been enrolled in a special prison program 'that had them doing odd jobs around the Mississippi governor’s mansion.'”
Political scuttlebutt has Haley Barbour running for president in 2012. My skin crawls at the notion. How can a man who released violent criminals to walk among the general public be fit for office?
The simple answer is, he isn't. My only hope is that the American public will remember not only the Scott sisters, but the crime victims that Barbour forgot.
from slate.com
______________
Sources
Raw Emotions Greet a Murderer's Release, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/02/national/main4316708.shtml
The Mississippi Pardons
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Comments
Thanks for this.
R
I can see how the man appeals to some Southerners (No offense to you, Mary), but I don't see the man as a national figure. I still hope he doesn't throw his hat into the ring. He's just another reason to be creeped out by American politics at the highest level.
(in the good sense of the word)
against the politics of blood lust?
the blood nutures the fallow fields.
Mother is awakened.
Aint the momma you idiots were aiming at, with all this blood
....
that was the old mother nature, and we got a new
one who knows about...um...
staunching the flow...
sorry to be graphic.
my mind works in vulgar nonmysterious ways.
...........................
i shall salve this with poetic obscurity:
"new mother nature coming thru"
some song i remember but forget.
that is the sin: to remember, and feel good,
and know you are right,
and yet forget on cue.
your duty: to forget.
Rise above it 6 miles and look down at it in a box...
a girl in a box...
alot of people get used to the box
and live comfortably , even luxuriously, in it...
but for a special few who cannot abide being walled in,
the box must be busted.
Only possible way to do it is to try everything
and fail miserably
and finally
when you no longer care
one morning you wake up
and the walls are gone
and you take steps as a free woman.