Fault Lines
Suspected cop-killer Maurice Clemmons is dead. Who is to blame for releasing him from prison?
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Maurice Clemmons would have been the first to say that a man needs to be held accountable for his actions.
"There is absolutely no excuse/justification for my past criminal behavior," he wrote 10 years ago in a clemency application to then–Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, pleading for "mercy" regarding the 108-year sentence he was serving at the time for two robberies and other crimes he'd committed when he was 16.
Stranger Personals
This was back when Clemmons was purportedly a God-fearing man. Back before he allegedly came to believe, sometime this summer, that he himself was God—Jesus Christ, to be exact, with an ability to fly. ("He reportedly thinks he can fly away and at one point was found in the backyard jumping," says a Pierce County police report from July.) It was back before authorities suspected Clemmons of shooting four Lakewood police officers at a coffee shop on November 29, execution-style, in the worst police killing in Washington State history. Before Clemmons was the subject of a sprawling, chaotic, nearly two-day-long manhunt that consumed SWAT teams and patrol officers all over Seattle and the surrounding region. Before several of Clemmons's family members and friends were rounded up and accused of helping him elude authorities. Before the manhunt finally ended, in the early morning hours of December 1, with Clemmons being shot dead by a lone Seattle officer on patrol in Rainier Valley.
In that old plea to Huckabee, Clemmons cast himself as a young man who had been raised in "a good Christian family," made the mistake of falling in with a bad crowd when he moved to Arkansas from Seattle as a teenager, and received an excessively harsh sentence for his youthful errors—a man who now found himself sitting in prison lamenting that he'd "never done anything good for God" and sincerely wanted a chance to make "a brand-new start."
Huckabee believed him. The Republican governor—who went on to run for president in 2008 and remains a potential 2012 presidential contender—offered clemency to Clemmons in May of 2000, setting him on the path to parole and, Huckabee hoped, a life redeemed by executive leniency.
It wasn't unusual for Huckabee to do this; during his time in office, he granted more than 1,000 clemencies—more than twice as many as the three previous Arkansas governors combined. But almost immediately after Huckabee granted this clemency, Clemmons violated his parole and was sent back to an Arkansas jail for involvement in a robbery.
He was paroled again in 2003, and this time was allowed to move to Washington, where he ran a landscaping business near Tacoma and lived a life free of major run-ins with the law until this summer—when, according to allegations in court records and recent police statements, he began a steep slide into criminal violence, throwing rocks at neighbors and their property, punching a sheriff's deputy in the face, raping a 12-year-old girl, and, finally, on November 29, shooting four police officers at Lakewood's Forza Coffee, near his home.
Two days later, at around 2:45 a.m., a Seattle police officer happened upon Clemmons while checking out an unoccupied stolen car in South Seattle. Authorities say Clemmons snuck up behind the cop, carrying a gun he'd stolen from one of the officers he'd killed two days earlier, and, after being spotted, refused commands to surrender.
The hunt for Clemmons is now over, but a huge question—as important to the local criminal-justice and mental-health systems as it is to the political future of Huckabee—remains: Who is responsible for the destruction wreaked by Clemmons this year?
Naturally, everyone involved is pointing in a different direction.
If you ask Huckabee, the responsibility lies with "a series of failures in the criminal-justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State." If you ask Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, who on November 30 gently interviewed Huckabee (who is also working as a Fox News commentator these days), the responsibility falls on two Washington judges who earlier this month allowed Clemmons to be released on $190,000 bail (not, as O'Reilly falsely said on air, $15,000 bail).
"They will be held accountable," O'Reilly said of the judges. "It's not your fault, Governor."
If you were able to ask Clemmons's Federal Way lawyer, Daniel Murphy, you would presumably hear that blame lies with his client's temporary insanity. Murphy, reached by phone, declined to talk to The Stranger, but court records show that on July 30, he informed a Pierce County superior court judge that Clemmons intended to plead not guilty to the child rape and assault charges "by reason of insanity and/or temporarily experiencing diminished capacity at the time of the offense."
If you ask psychiatrists at Western State Hospital, who earlier this year were tasked by the court with evaluating Clemmons's competency to stand trial, it all might just have been a result of the normal difficulties of life. According to their October 19 report, first obtained by the Tacoma News Tribune and later described in further detail by the Seattle Times, Clemmons said that around the time of his alleged child rape and officer assault in early May, he had been having visions of "people drinking blood and people eating babies." But when the Western State psychiatrists interviewed Clemmons in October, they saw "no evidence of disturbance," deemed him competent to stand trial, and had no formal diagnosis for him "other than stress," as the Seattle Times put it.
If you ask people close to Clemmons, it would probably all come back to the fact that in May he suddenly appeared to be "having a mental breakdown" and going "crazy" and was clearly "not in his right mind," according to statements his family members and friends made in police reports at the time.
If you ask some local law-enforcement officials, responsibility lies with Arkansas authorities, who on July 22 dropped a "no-bail warrant" that could have prevented Clemmons from being released on bail just days before the November 29 cop killings.
Clearly, there was no shortage of human and systemic failures that ultimately allowed Clemmons to go free when he should have been locked up. Consider this simple distillation: A man set free nearly 10 years ago by Huckabee, dragging around a criminal record dating back to his teenage years, had appeared in a Pierce County court in July and announced that he intended to claim he'd been out of his mind when he raped a young girl and assaulted a police officer in May. After which, two Western State psychiatrists—despite their inability to see any signs of disturbance in this man in October—said he represented an "increased risk for future dangerous behavior and for committing future criminal acts." Nevertheless, he was released on bail, and soon thereafter allegedly wandered into a coffee shop and began firing off rounds at four police officers.
But beneath all the failure-exposing and blame-shuffling are more difficult, ultimately unanswerable questions. Was Clemmons a fundamentally decent man who made some childhood mistakes, had the book thrown at him for them, received a generous second chance from Huckabee, and did the best he could with it until, in his 37th year of life, he suddenly snapped? Or was Clemmons always closer to being "the Beast," as he reportedly described himself this summer, a dark-hearted manipulator benefiting from criminal assistance by his friends and family, and running an extremely long con that variously tricked Huckabee, his own lawyer, and multiple Washington State officials into repeatedly promoting his reentry into society? Or was he a combination of unstable psychic elements in need of smart psychiatric intervention that he simply never received?
The paradox of his death at the hands of the Seattle police officer
is that, while the community may now feel safer, it will never know the
answer—will never know for sure who it really was that was
terrorizing them. 
It has been written that his sense of Christian mercy made him significantly more generous with grants of clemency than most of his peers (especially other Republicans). But was his generosity applied indiscriminately, or limited to those who appealed to his specific religious biases?
Did a clemency request like Clemmons's, touting his "good Christian" influences, become a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card during Huckabee's tenure? And would a similar inmate, touting his upbringing as a "good Muslim" or desire to be a "good Secular Humanist," have received the same treatment from the state's Chief Executive?
This may not just be a simple error in judgment. It may be classic case of religious favoritism... with tragic results.
Of course Mr. Huckabee decided to serve his lord's interest before interests of his constituents.
This is why I don't believe anybody associated with any organized religion on his level should not be elected to any government positions unless they are capable of separating their personal beliefs when serving as a public servant.
Besides that, what the hells wrong with our sentencing guidelines?
I've seen so many people put in jail for excessive amount of time for victimless crime while person like Clemmons keep on receiving lesser penalties.
It's about time our society take another look at our criminal justice system and overhaul sentencing guidelines.
It doesn't matter if we don't use what we have.
We need to use death penalty as needed instead of pre-bargins that let's most vicious criminals to live on our tax $$ for rest of their life.
I don't want to have a police state because I never really had pleasant encounters with them.
However, if we don't put some fear in to some of these criminals, we will see more freaks like him come out of the wood works.
Let's start with electing people that actually reflects what general public demands.
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http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/…
I guess the Stranger has officially become the National Review.
Huckabee pardons a man sentenced at 16 yrs old to a 90+ sentence a decade ago.
Liberal, NW judge releases 37 year old man who raped a 12 yr old and punched a cop this year with only a $15K bond (bond, not ail to all you morons out there).
Who do we blame?
"Mumia probably did it but still deserves the fair trial he's never gotten"
I'll play my small violin for him while he rots in jail.
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It's December. The time for year-end listmania!
Best Stranger Cover of the year has to be Mar 12-18. Love. At. First. Sight. when I saw it in the spring. Tight jeans, a rifle, logs, sandals. Hot! Hot! Hot!
I say time to reflect the world of news. More guns on your covers!!
It was $150K bail which the bondsman only required a 10% payment from the defendant; something the judge would have been fully aware of.
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It wasn't for this piece of shit, he produced it right away. It must be embarrassing to know a POS like this has his shit together financially better than you do.
The focus needs to be on pretrial detention procedures. You could generally make the same arguments about pretrial detention in that you can't tell the future; however, both seemingly fit the criteria for detention without extremely high or no bail. I think the focus should be on the pretrial detention procedures and whether the prosecutor's office failed to argue their case effectively.
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kalebu and clemmons:
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
Williams:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…
Is this an acceptable coincidence?.. or a pattern symptomatic of a legal or institutional inability to serve our mentally ill community and protect everyone else?
For someone of moderate means, $190K bail is usually an unreachable amount -- you not only have to have 10% to give up in a cash fee to the bondsman, but must have title to property worth the remainder. The judge likely did not intend this defendant to be released. It is unusual to have bails higher than this.
Sure, let's say it was all the big-bad Liberal Judge's fault. That doesn't change the fact that conservatives continue to bill themselves as being "tough on crime." I'm sure you're familiar with the name Willie Horton. Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign was torpedoed over this issue, despite the fact that the program that allowed Horton's freedom was created by a Republican governor. Now we have another Republican *directly responsible* for the prisoner's release, not something that just happened while he was in office, like Dukakis.
So now the conservative wingnuts are falling all over themselves to forgive Huckabee and lay the blame somewhere else. Does Huckabee take "personal responsibility" for his actions? Of course not. He's a hypocrite, like all modern conservatives. Because the entire conservative agenda has nothing to do with policy. The only goal for conservatives is to achieve power. They're not interested in actually governing, only interested in being in Power.
One more thing, Kevin dear-- You'd be a lot more convincing if you didn't parrot whatever appears on Fox News, or Rush's program. I've yet to read any conservative post on the internet that had an original thought, or something that I couldn't get from the conservative media blow-hards.
I can't stand Huckabee, but he's not the problem.
Pin the blame where it belongs-
on your own
Clergy and High Priesthood
of the
Most Righteous Godless Heathen Secular Humanism-
your liberal permissive judges and
your absolution granting psychologists...
Absolutely Huckebee is a flaming hypocrit. So are 90% of the Sloggers here and Eli Sanders for trying to pin this on Huckebee's act of 'compassion'.
Most black people don't care about raising their own children, much less taking care of anyone else. How can anyone who isn't living in some dishonest fantasyland not get that?
Brace your "community" for an upturn in police brutality.
Most black people don't care about raising their own children, much less taking care of anyone else. How can anyone who isn't living in some dishonest fantasyland not get that?
Brace your "community" for an upturn in police brutality.
32
You all should read the Seattle Times story on the parole violation warrant with Arkansas. They're the real guilty party here -- the goddamn incompetents in the Arkansas justice system.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…
Or, you could just keep arguing about crap you don't understand the first thing about.
33
Another problem is that we don't spend nearly enough money on mental health treatment.
Huckabee is not to blame. His statement makes a lot of sense and granting clemency to a man serving a 108 year sentence for robbery crimes committed while 16 was the right thing to do.
The real problem is how we as a society treat mental illness.
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I agree. It's outrageous that black teenagers sentenced to 100 yr sentences from unarmed robbery are pardoned! I'd be more than happy if they locked them all up for life.
40
but clemmons' original sentence was cruel and unusual and should have been commuted.
41
The real truth is that he went on a pardon/clemency/commutation binge that neatly corresponded to the electoral cycle. He needed the black vote in Arkansas to win. He was/is a white preacher from a state that does not integrate its churches, and was therefore looked at with suspicion by the black community.
He found solid political cover with commutations, in particular, as it was the Parole Board that releases prisioners, not the Guv'ner. A pardon would be tough to dodge, but a commutation just made someone eligible for parole. Huckabee could then campaign on a "friend of the black community" plank, without the danger that the criminals released would come back to haunt him directly. I wonder which one of his advisors came up with this plan, as it is a pretty good one for campaign purposes.
42
And we can't hold people without bail in non-capital crimes in this state.
The question I'd really like answered, personally, is how a convicted felon came by those two handguns he had when he went into Forza Coffeeshop in the first place.
44
So apparently letting wild criminals back into the black community wins you the black vote?
It takes a village I guess...I'm just glad I live no where near one of these particular villages.
The system did fail though - anybody who is claiming to be Jesus Christ is either on drugs (and needs help) or has a mental illness (and needs help.) If claiming to be Jesus Christ, raping a girl, and assaulting a police officer are not reasons to have someone committed (especially if they , and others around them claim they are unwell) that WHAT is?
"Did a clemency request like Clemmons's, touting his "good Christian" influences, become a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card during Huckabee's tenure? And would a similar inmate, touting his upbringing as a "good Muslim" or desire to be a "good Secular Humanist," have received the same treatment from his state's Chief Executive?"
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Jesus was a ruse. Huckabee was trying to get re-elected. The answer is pretty obvious if you care to look at the reality of how & when politicians make decisions.
2. the fault is (A) the prosecutor, only asking for $200K, (b) that judge feldnagle whoever, he's sure hiding behind his black robe, mmm? and (C) we must have the most stupid bail laws in the world if you don't like at priors and we maintain the system of 10$ down and EZ credit financing.
3. WE are to blame because no one pays attention to these things until there is a tragedy, then we forget and will reelect this judge again, we will laud the pierce county prosecutor and probably elect him to pierce county exec becuz we so adroitly shifted all blame to arkansas, and we will continue without looking at or taking responsibility for or getting our legislators to revise these bail laws because obviously someone who got a 98 year sentence who committed assaults here who punched cops here who faced child rape here and who is unstable shouldn't fucking have been let out on bail and our system allowed it and we're in charge of out system.
Since you asked who's at fault.
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However politically this is absolutely devastating. It's clear to me that if this now cop-killer wasn't previously given a second chance on what seems to be faith Huckabee falls into the Sarah Palin category of political figures. Sure they want to get elected, but I'd rather vote in a centrist democrat than 'let' another ring wing extremist who cares more about their faith than the American people (and I understand, to them the 2 separate topics are the exact same thing) get elected. Little progress is better than getting blasted back to the stone age, though honestly, considering all the circumstances in his previous case, I might have made the same choice too.
And, while he may have been sowing signs of metal instability, he may well have been competent to stand trail. The laws regarding competence are written to prevent defendants using an "insanity claim" without being seriously mentally ill.
The same people on here calling for Huckabee's head are also most likely in favor of reforming Draconian prison sentences such as a 90 yr robbery sentence for a 16 yr old.
The only person to blame for this act is Maruice Clemons, and thankfully due to the quick action of a SPD officer got pumped full of lead.
It just REALLY FREAKS ME OUT that Huckabee, as the executive entrusted with complete discretion over clemency matters, was making life-altering decisions (for those who would be released or rot in jail, AND for the potential victims of an unwise grant of clemecy) based SOLELY ON HIS OWN RELIGIOUS BIAS (Christians worthy, others not), flouting both the Establishment Clause and the Equal Protection Clause, and that no one seems to bat an eye at this.
people commit crimes. that's what they do. they always have, always will and there's nothing you can do about it. any attempt to plug the failing damn of human existence is masturbation and i hope you brought some kleenex because this is going to be a painful decline.
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A: President Ronald Reagan and all those who support his idiotic ideology.
Reagan is responsible for reducing public mental health services and releasing the mentally ill onto the streets. He also came up with the "War On Drugs" and "Just Say No" which unfairly targeted Black crack addicts with harsh mandatory sentences while allowing white cocaine users off the hook.
64
Once the innocent have been proven guilty, I'll firmly blame the person who committed the crimes... for the crimes.
Because I expect as much if I'M shot by the cops.
Funny thing, that.
I'm with @22 I guess: Though I'm happy to place a small slice of 'blame' on parents & his friends/community for bringing him up so completely detached from right & wrong.
Blame the taxpayer-paid "system"? Fuck no, I own that, and I know *I* ain't to blame for this. I'd have to, you know, er, blame Myself for complacency or somethin.
Won't see anyone doing that.
Ever.
@29 - I'll accept your foolish racism IF you can do something about the violent sexual crimes, 92% perpetrated by 'whites'...
No? Then address the real tangible problems, not the skin pigment problems you've cooked up in your imagin-nation.
@19 nails the point about bail.
On the subject of ole Huck: I think y'all er wrong: he shoulda Reduced Sent'nce, not applied clemency. Happy medium: Clemmons'd still be in jail, but not for life.
@49: I'm hoping for Huckabee/Palin to run, myself. ;)
@61: don't you have a street corner and a cardboard placard to occupy?
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good point.
appeal to christianity could have gotten him out, but very unlikely appeal to anything else (including, and especially, islam)
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We have a system were a 17 year old can be sentenced to life in prison for a robbery, and then we wonder why when people like this get out, they want to kill police officers? If you believe that the US actions in the middle east are helping to create terrorist, then you should see the connection here. Would a sane criminal justice system [where police misbehavior was not tolerated, and sentences that fit crimes] produce such animosity towards the police and other symbols of state authority?
are you folks even sure clemmons had anything to do with the forza shooting? what makes you so sure? it looks like a black op to me intended to sell gun control and police crackdowns. clemmons was probably just another patsy.
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