In a sane world Maurice Clemmons would have never left the Arkansas prison system. A violent felon with a history of assaults Clemmons’ first serious run in with the law was at the age of 17 when he was caught robbing people on school grounds with a handgun. In 1990 he got hit with a 60 year bid for burglary and theft. That was on top of 48 years he had already gotten for other crimes.

Sound like he got a raw deal? Not exactly. Clemmons’ dangerous court house antics made an impression on authorities that made it unlikely he’d ever see the light of day if they had anything to say about it:

In 1990, Clemmons, then 18, was sentenced in Arkansas to 60 years in prison for burglary and theft of property, according to a news account in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Newspaper stories describe a series of disturbing incidents involving Clemmons while he was being tried in Arkansas on various charges.

During one trial, Clemmons was shackled in leg irons and seated next to a uniformed officer. The presiding judge ordered the extra security because he felt Clemmons had threatened him, court records show.

Another time, Clemmons hid a hinge in his sock, and was accused of intending to use it as a weapon. Yet another time, Clemmons took a lock from a holding cell, and threw it toward the bailiff. He missed and instead hit Clemmons’ mother, who had come to bring him street clothes, according to records and published reports.

On another occasion, Clemmons had reached for a guard’s pistol during transport to the courtroom.

Sound dangerous? Maybe to you and me. But “conservative” politician/preacher Mike Huckabee thought Clemmons deserved a second chance because he was so young when he ended up in prison. So Huckabee granted this thug clemency despite how obviously dangerous he was. Clemmons went on with his criminal ways.

In March 2001 Clemmons was charged with more strong arm robberies. More recently he was involved in an assault on a police officer and child rape. From SeattlePI:

Recently he was charged in Pierce County for third-degree assault on a police officer and rape of a child. Clemmons’ aunt, in Little Rock, Ark., declined to comment or even give her name. She said her mother — who is Clemmons’ grandmother — had numerous calls from reporters on Sunday “and it was very upsetting to her.”

According to court records, Clemmons was released from custody Nov. 12 after a Pierce County judge ordered he undergo a second psychiatric evaluation at Western State Hospital.

Pierce County records show Clemmons is currently facing child rape charges in a May 10 incident, the details of which were not available Sunday. In a separate case, Clemmons and two other men have been charged with two counts of third-degree assault and multiple counts of malicious mischief, or destruction of property.

Court records show Clemmons spent much of 2009 as a fugitive, avoiding jail until an arrest in July. Though bail was initially set at $150,000 in the child rape case, that order appears to have been revoked on Nov. 12 when he was ordered evaluated at Western State Hospital.

In the child rape case, filed in early July, prosecutors appear to have filed to have Clemmons confined if convicted under the state’s persistent offender statute.

While many would lay this at Huckabee’s feet exclusively, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Why was a man with a criminal record this long and who had been a fugitive a year ago granted bail in the first place? Left leaning journalists are gleefully reporting on “the Huckabee connection” while studiously ignoring the hug-a-thug policies they usually support wholeheartedly. They certainly are shy about putting forward the fact that this is the second police ambush in Washington this month. I think there might be some blame for Washington’s anti-police political environment in both these cases.

But in the Clemmons case, it is clear that what drove Huckabee and the liberal judges who later came into contact with him was the belief that all criminals could be rehabilitated, that there is reason to give people like Maurice Clemmons a second chance. But in that world view, one of universal redemption that characterizes both the Christian ethics of Huckabee and the liberalism of Washington state, there is no room for the truth. Maurice Clemmons could never be rehabilitated because he simply didn’t want to be.

As usual, people will claim that he was mentally unstable, but Clemmons was recently held competent to stand trial. No matter how odd he was, he knew right from wrong and chose murder, rape and brutality every time he had a chance. Had Huckabee not pardoned this fiend his family wouldn’t have been abused (it’s being reported that Clemmons made his wife and children strip in front of him for entertainment) and a child’s innocence wouldn’t have been stolen. If a judge hadn’t given this predator bail those four police officers he gunned down would be alive. If our system recognized that some people simply cannot be rehabilitated, Clemmons’ trail of victims would have never been as long and as tragic as it is now.

Clemmons can distinguish between right and wrong. Why can’t we?

Fox has more.