Huckabee should not have pardoned criminals

As the Republican governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee pardoned more criminals than the three previous governors of his state, combined.

Mitt Romney took Huckabee to task when both ran for president in 2008 because Huckabee had publicly supported the release of convicted rapist Wayne Dumond. After Dumond was released in 1999, he was charged with rape and murder in Missouri, where he died in prison before trial.

Now Huckabee is defending his decision to free a convict who is accused of the ambush-style slayings of four Seattle-area police officers. Huckabee should have kept his pardon pen in his pocket. If he had not commuted the sentence of Maurice Clemmons, a man who had served only 11 years of his 108-year prison sentence, four police officers would still be alive today.

Suzette Elgin

North Liberty