Haley Barbour: God Bless You! Pardoned Inmates & Forgiveness

When former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour recently Pardoned 200 Convicted Felons AFTER they Served their time for Criminal Acts, he demonstrated unbelievable examples of Courage, Forgiveness & Humanity.

In fact it took a lot of Courage for Haley Barbour to do what he did for those Inmates because too often Our Society treats Inmates like Animals.

Including many Inmates who have been Wrongfully Convicted & Wrongfully Imprisoned.

And while I empathize with families of the Victims, I can't forget that more than 50% of ALL Currently Imprisoned Men in American Prisons are BLACK & Latino Human Beings.

Since the Mississippi Supreme Court found NO Error in Haley Barbour's decision to Legally Pardon those 200 Convicted Felons, why continue all of this drama?

The Media should STOP wasting valuable time & resources Bashing Haley Barbour for doing something that was Completely Legal.

Considering the fact that each of those 200 Convicted Felons Served at least 20 Years in Prison, I ask again why is the Media choosing to remain focused on this situation?

Instead the Media should be focusing its attention on why 50% of BLACK & Latino Men living in this Country are Still being Racially Profiled, Wrongfully Convicted & Wrongfully Imprisoned in the 21st Century.

Society is always talking about how Many Southern WHITE People are Racist but than when they display Benevolent, Humane Behavior towards BLACKS & Latinos, we want to Bash or Shun them.

What about those hundreds of Wall Street Executives who Stole BILLIONS from the Federal Government from that TARP money?

Why isn't the Media jumping up & down over that Atrocity???

Let it Go!

Stop Hating!

God Bless You Haley Barbour!






Docs show murderers got special treatment from governor, wife


Investigative documents obtained by CNN show that former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, his wife and his staff may have given preferential treatment to two of the convicted murderers who were among the more than 200 former and current inmates he pardoned in January.

According to the documents compiled by the office of Mississippi's attorney general, the state's former first lady, Marsha Barbour, apparently called a car dealership regarding the purchase of two vehicles for two convicted murderers -- days before they were pardoned.

The cars were later delivered to the governor's mansion, two days before the men were released.

CNN has also learned that a member of the governor's staff took the same two men, David Gatlin and Charles Hooker, to get their driver's licenses while they were still in state custody, before their pardons were signed and made official.

"Yes, that's true ... I did take some of them," said Barbour's former security chief, Wayland Adams. "I knew that they were going to be paroled. I was assured of that and I just took them to get their driver's licenses.

"I thought that if I went ahead to get them a driver's license it would speed things up on getting them a job. And that was the only reason. I was just trying to help them."

Adams, who retired as security director of the Mississippi governor's mansion when Barbour left office in January, told CNN the former Mississippi governor did not ask him to take Gatlin and Hooker to get their licenses.

"No, I assume full responsibility for it," he said.

Adams admitted his actions were a bit unusual.

State law enforcement experts and legal experts told CNN that while this would be considered preferential treatment for any inmate, no state laws were violated.

"Unless a person has had his or her license revoked ... they are not prohibited from acquiring or renewing a driver's license while incarcerated as long as they had domicile in the state prior to imprisonment," according to a written statement from Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Master Sgt. Johnny Poulos.

Poulos said his department was not aware of any directive from Barbour to provide licenses to the men.

Either way, Randy Walker is furious. Nearly 20 years ago, he survived a gunshot wound to the head by Gatlin moments after Gatlin killed Tammy Ellis, Gatlin's estranged wife. Gatlin admitted he shot her in the head as she held their 6-week-old child in her arms. Police found the infant, still in her arms, alive and covered with blood.

"Where is enough enough?" said Walker, who has recovered from his head wound. "It should be enough that they gave a convicted killer his life back."

During his last days in office in January, Gov. Haley Barbour issued pardons to more than 200 current and former inmates. Most of the pardons were granted to former inmates who had already completed their sentences and were free.

However, some of the prisoners were convicted murderers. Now, the legacy of the once popular two-term governor, who considered running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, is being questioned by some Mississippians.

The pardons were challenged by Mississippi's attorney general, but last week the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the legality of the pardons.

Five of the prisoners -- including Gatlin and Hooker -- worked as trusties as part of a state rehabilitation program that allows model prisoners to work as servants and handymen at the governor's mansion.

They had access to Barbour practically every day, according to people familiar with the program.

Barbour has said he believes the men are no longer a threat, that they are rehabilitated and deserve a second chance at life.

"That's what we as Christians believe. My wife and I are Christians," he told CNN's John King on his show, "John King, USA," weeks after issuing the pardons.

"When we have people who get rehabilitated ... they deserve a second chance.

It's the governor's job and the governor's job alone to let them have a second chance. That's why I'm very comfortable with this."

But no matter how one looks at this story, the benefits these convicted murderers received appear special.

"It's abhorrent that these people would be given this sort of treatment after the crimes they've committed," said Mississippi State Rep. David Baria.

Baria, a Democrat, sponsored several bills to change Mississippi's pardons process. The bills all died in committee last week. He said the victims in the cases have put up with too much already.

"Not only to turn these folks loose but to treat them like kings, essentially -- it's outside the bounds of common decency of what we expect of our government," he told CNN.
Gatlin and Hooker were released on January 8. They both had driver's licenses when they went to Gray Daniels Chevrolet in Jackson, Mississippi, on January 6.

Records show Hooker bought a white 2007 Ford Focus while Gatlin picked up a gray Chevy HHR. Both vehicles were paid for with bank checks from Bank Plus.

Both men put no money down. It remains unclear how the men were able to secure bank checks while still in the custody of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

When reached by CNN at the dealership, the salesman who sold the men the cars refused to comment.
"I am not allowed to speak about any transactions," he said.

But the investigative reports compiled by Mississippi's attorney general's office show that Barbour's wife, Marsha Barbour, aided the transaction.

In the report, the investigator writes, "While at the dealership I spoke briefly with the salesman who stated that Marsha Barbour had contacted him regarding the purchase of vehicles for Hooker and Gatlin."

The details of the conversation were not available and it is not clear exactly what role Marsha Barbour played in the transaction, or the nature of her relationship with the pardoned men.

The report further stated that "the inmates had been brought to the dealership on January 6, 2012, in a black Ford Crown Victoria to complete paperwork for the sale and [the investigator] stated that the prisoners had paid with certified checks issued by Bank Plus."

According to the report, the car salesman also told investigators "he delivered both vehicles to the governor's mansion on the afternoon of January 6, 2012."

When investigators asked Gatlin how he got the car, he allegedly told them, according to the report, "I can't tell you."

When asked about the driver's licenses and the role of Marsha Barbour in the purchase of the cars, a spokeswoman for the former governor said the questions "were based on assumptions of fact which simply are not true."

Spokeswoman Sherry Vance did not elaborate on which aspects of this story were untrue, and has not responded to CNN's questions for clarification.

Walker, the victim who stared down the barrel of Gatlin's gun before he was shot in the head, said he's "baffled" by the allegations and believes Barbour is financially helping the men.

"Was it because he was a trusty at the governor's mansion and he had so much time with Barbour?" he wondered. "It's insane that he would do that. Where's my handout?"
"I mean, I had thousands upon thousands of medical bills that nobody helped me pay.

I'd like to get some of that money back that I wasted because David shot me. I didn't ask for David to come shoot me. Where's my handout?" he asked angrily.

CNN went to Hooker's home in Jackson several times and saw the White Ford Focus mentioned in the state investigator's report parked outside his house, but Hooker did not answer his door or respond to CNN's phone calls.

According to the investigative reports from the Mississippi attorney general's office, Hooker allegedly told investigators that his son helped him buy the vehicle, and that his son had already made three months of car payments for him.

CNN also went to Alabama to try to get Gatlin's side of the story, and found him living in the home of Ernest Jacks. His gray Chevy HHR was in the driveway, but Jacks said Gatlin refused to talk to us.

But Walker has a lot to say. He can barely contain his anger that the man who tried to kill him could get such preferential treatment.

"I've been trying for over two years, since 2009, to get a face to face with Barbour, and never got a phone call back," said Walker. "Gatlin must have made quite the impression on him."


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Sources: CNN, Google Maps

Charlotte Robbery Victim Shoots Teen (15 yrs old) Suspect Vigilante Style But Receives No Punishment....Another City Lawsuit Settlement

Charlotte Observer----



Seventy-six-year-old C.L. McClure would talk to a reporter only through his front door intercom Tuesday – three days after police said he shot and killed a 15-year-old suspected of robbing him and his wife.

“I'm not in any condition to talk,” said the retired building fireproofer through the faint static of his intercom speaker. He wouldn't elaborate.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said Tuesday that two separate investigative units – robbery and homicide – are trying to unravel what happened in a home invasion that ended with the death of 15-year-old Marcus Fluker.

The CMPD said home invasions are down this year by 19 percent, along with nearly all categories of violent crime.

And instances of a victim shooting at a perpetrator, let alone wounding or killing one, are extremely rare, said CMPD Capt. Mike Smathers, who commands the department's robbery unit.

Police also said Tuesday they want to prevent any possible retribution against McClure. A CMPD cruiser was parked Tuesday a few doors down from the McClure residence, and officers have made visits to the home to check on the elderly couple in northeast Charlotte's Newell community.

“I think there's a concern. They just want to be extra careful. It's extra upsetting to have a 15-year-old shot and killed,” said Smathers. “I don't care who you are; that's terrible. They're just trying to make sure peace is maintained.”

Police say McClure's brick home was the starting point of the complex crime scene.

According to a Saturday interview with McClure's son Larry, four teens entered the home while McClure was eating ice cream in his basement hobby shop.

The robbers, one armed with a gun, bound him with duct tape and held his wife at gunpoint. They ransacked the house and made off with some jewelry and a wallet, police said.

After they left, McClure broke free. “He checked on my mother,” said Larry McClure, who lives next door, “and he assumed he knew their route. He thought they might have been driving, and he wanted to get a tag number.”

“In his mind,” Larry McClure said, “he was worried they'd be back.”

His son said McClure grabbed his gun, got into his dark green van and guessed the thieves would head toward nearby Ginger Lane. Larry McClure said his father told him he was in his van when he saw one of the suspected robbers and thought he was armed. C.L. McClure fired his pistol when the teen turned toward him, his son said.

Fluker died later at Carolinas Medical Center. Police said they didn't recover a gun from where he fell.

Family and friends of Fluker say he was a good kid and got in with a bad crowd. They said they wished McClure had merely called police and waited.

Officers took McClure to headquarters for questioning, but he was released Saturday without being charged. In North Carolina, it's legal to kill someone in defense of yourself or another. N.C. law also protects homeowners who shoot to defend their property.

As of Tuesday police hadn't charged McClure. The Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office will make a final decision.

Police have charged the other three teens with robbery and burglary.

Police identified them as Joseph Graves, 17, Matthew Everett Morgan, 17, and Tahjaue Wiley, 18.

Morgan already had a pending charge of robbery with a dangerous weapon from last summer and was scheduled to go to trial in October. He was convicted in May of bringing a weapon onto school grounds.

Graves and Wiley do not have any convictions on their N.C. record. Fluker's mother told the Observer her son had not been arrested or jailed before. Criminal records for minors are not available.



An understandable, but wrong, response

(Robbery victim was violated, but can't impose justice himself.)

Mecklenburg District Attorney Peter Gilchrist will have to decide what charges to file, if any, against C.L. McClure in the shooting of a 15-year-old robbery suspect. But in a case being portrayed as complicated, one fundamental seems uncomplicated to us: you can't just track a boy down on the streets and shoot him dead because you think he helped rob you earlier.

We're sympathetic to McClure. His son says he and his wife were tied up and robbed in their home by four suspects. The fear and anger they must have felt are unimaginable. It's understandable that McClure would want revenge. And if McClure had shot one of the intruders in his home during the course of the crime, he would be much easier to defend.

But McClure, according to his son, Larry, jumped in his van and raced after the robbers after they had left. He caught up with them not far from his house and, his son says, fired the shots that killed Marcus Antonio Steven Fluker, 15.

We detest the actions of Fluker and the three other suspects who police say invaded McClure's home. But robbery is not an offense punishable by death. And as veteran criminal defense lawyer George Laughrun said, “Even if they were threatened, or felt threatened, you still can't walk down the street like in the Old West and take care of justice yourself.” Laughrun said a jury would have to decide “did someone have the right to be judge, jury and executioner?”

No one has that right unless they are acting to protect their own life. McClure's son said McClure believed he was in imminent danger, and he may well have felt that way. But the robbery was over. At that point, McClure should have called police, not taken matters into his own hands. If this model is followed, how long will it be before a robbery victim, seeking revenge, shoots an innocent person on the street?

Our justice system doesn't always work as well as we would like. It's reasonable to think in a situation like this that police might arrive too late to apprehend the suspects (though they did make three arrests in this case). Given our clogged prisons and flawed court system, any punishment is uncertain.

But the alternative – in which each of us can just mete out vigilante justice as we please – is a slippery slope. It might feel good in theory but in fact would make this community more dangerous.



City of Charlotte reaches Settlement in teen's Taser death


The City of Charlotte settled with the family of a 17-year-old who died in March 2008 after being shot by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer with a Taser, according to an attorney representing the family.

The out-of-court agreement was announced Tuesday by attorney Ken Harris, who represented the family of Darryl Turner in a suit against the city.

Harris said he expects other litigation in the case, however.

Turner died March 20, 2008, after a confrontation with police at a north Charlotte grocery store where Turner had worked.

The officer who fired the Taser was not charged, but he was disciplined by police.

Police later determined that Officer Jerry Dawson Jr. violated department policy with the way he shocked Turner with the Taser gun. An autopsy showed the teenager's heart was pumping so fast and chaotically from the stress of the confrontation and the Taser shot that it stopped pumping blood properly.

Dawson was suspended for five days without pay in July 2008.

In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Harris did not disclose the amount of the settlement but described it as “very substantial.”

City legal officials could not be reached.

While saying the settlement closes the case against the city, Harris said the matter probably is not closed.

“This is a tragedy that Darryl's relatives hope will never be visited upon another family,” he said. “In light of that perspective, I must note that there will likely be litigation in this matter concerning other parties.”

Harris did not specify who else might be a subject of litigation by Turner's family.

The Taser is a weapon that typically uses compressed nitrogen to shoot two tethered needle-like probes that penetrate skin and deliver an electric shock. It is designed to subdue a person temporarily.

The incident which led to Turner's death happened at a Food Lion store on Properity Church Road. According to court documents, police were called after the store manager asked Turner to leave and he refused. Store surveillance video showed Turner at the customer service desk, knocking over a display and throwing an umbrella. He then moved closer to a store manager and employee, at one point raising his arm and pointing at the manager.

The video then showed Dawson walking through the front door, carrying what appears to be his Taser. Dawson approached Turner with the Taser pointed at him. Turner took a step toward the officer, then continued to walk past him.

It was unclear from the video when Turner was shocked, but police said it happened as Turner stepped toward the officer.

In an investigation which followed the incident, police determined that Dawson held the trigger of the Taser for 37 seconds, until Turner fell. The officer later shocked Turner a second time, for five seconds. According to the CMPD report on the incident, a review board “determined that rthe initial decision to discharge the Taser was within our procedures, but the prlonged use of the Taser was not.”

In addition to the suspension, Dawson also was given additional training on proper use of the Taser.

In the statement announcing the settlement, Harris praised city officials for “their thorough investigation of this matter” and for the city's “openness throughout the process.”



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Sources: Charlotte Observer, WCNC, US Dept of Justice, Charmeck.org, Google Maps

N.C. AG Roy Cooper Sets Up Crime Victims Restitution Task Force (Eliminating NC Corruption)

Charlotte Observer----

(Shocked AG says he'll help crime victims get their money after courts improperly diverted it.)

RALEIGH - State Attorney General Roy Cooper says he is shocked that thousands of crime victims were denied restitution that had been diverted to pay other legal costs, and he is setting up a task force to help the victims get their money.

“I'm shocked that crime victims have been forced to wait behind the government before getting the funds they deserve,” Cooper said in a news release. “Our task force will help crime victims get the money that belongs to them.”

The News & Observer and the Observer reported Sunday that for the past 10 years, North Carolina's court system had improperly diverted millions of dollars that should have gone to compensate crime victims. State law requires that victims be compensated first, but the court system placed them third in line, behind fees for probation and community service. A computer setting pushed crime victims even further down the line, behind fines and city and county fees.

Court officials said it would be difficult to track down all the victims who lost out on restitution.

But starting Tuesday, the codes in the court system computers were to be reconfigured so that victims receive their money first, said Sharon Gladwell, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts. That will mean victims in any pending criminal cases should start receiving money that perpetrators were ordered to pay to them.

The state agency is also looking at what legal hurdles might get in the way of retroactively paying victims in cases where offenders paid portions of the money owed before the case was closed.

Mecklenburg Clerk of Court Martha Curran said Tuesday she and her clerks will do everything they can to make sure victims of crimes receive their restitution. She said her staff will be reviewing cases where restitution has been ordered to make sure the victims from now on are compensated first.

“Restitution to victims should be the number one priority,” Curran said. “We'll do everything possible to get victims their money.”

Cooper, a former state lawmaker, was one of the sponsors of the 1998 state law that put crime victims first when criminals pay restitution to the court. He has also sent a letter to John Smith, the director of the state's administrative courts office, urging him to identify cases in which crime victims lost compensation as a result of the improper actions.

“Just as important as setting future priorities is making it right for past crime victims,” Cooper wrote.

The letter was copied to Chief Justice Sarah Parker, House Speaker Joe Hackney, Senate leader Marc Basnight and Gov. Bev Perdue.

“It's shameful. It is disheartening,”Basnight said.

He has instructed his staff to find out how so many victims didn't receive the money they were owed. He said that victims in closed cases should still get the money they are owed.

Chrissy Pearson, a spokeswoman for Perdue, said: “Governor Perdue believes that criminals should pay for their crimes, both by serving time and paying restitution to their victims.”


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Sources: Charlotte Observer, News Observer, Google Maps