Four cops in Washington state were murdered in a premeditated hit at a coffee shop over the weekend, and all anyone can talk about is the fact that the chief suspect, Maurice Clemmons, was once given clemency by then-Governor Mike Huckabee in Arkansas nine years ago. Clemmons has been surrounded, wounded and perhaps killed; a resolution should come shortly.

So a word about Huckabee and clemency.

There are reasons to criticize Huckabee for offering clemency to certain convicts. The Wayne DuMond case would be an example, as Huckabee apparently set DuMond free because right-wingers in his state convinced him that DuMond only raped a Clinton relative and thus did nothing wrong (he basically let him go to get back at Clinton). DuMond raped again and Huckabee tried to blame others for his release. It was a shameful episode.

The Clemmons case is far less clear-cut. Clemmons was serving a combined 95-year sentence in Arkansas for robbery, based on actions he took when he was 18. There were no violent crimes in his history in Arkansas leading up to that point when he was released, although a few incidents during captivity while he was being tried. More recently, in Washington state, he was arrested for child rape and several other felony charges, and he exhibited multiple signs of mental illness. If you want to criticize the criminal justice system for allowing him to walk the streets, it may be fair in more recent times. But nine years ago, Mike Huckabee did not have a crystal ball, and that extremely excessive sentence for a couple robberies does not seem justified.

Huckabee has released a statement blaming “failures in the criminal justice system” and the parole board in Arkansas for Clemmons slipping through. That’s typical of Huckabee, who takes no responsibility for anything. But this notion that every Governor has a pre-crime unit where he can divine the future and know who to lock up forever is what has led this country to incarcerating more of its citizens that any of Earth, without a proportionate impact on decreasing crime to justify it. Calling this Mike Huckabee’s “Willie Horton” moment, aside from the racial overtones, gives in to a default view of crime and punishment that has been discredited as draconian, unsustainable and not even the most responsible course for public safety. There indeed were failures in the Clemmons case, but the “tough on crime” attitude has led to spending more in some states on incarceration than K-12 education. And it does not logically follow that we can simply lock up every potential criminal and stop every potential crime.

I could probably think of 100 reasons why Mike Huckabee should have no political future. This isn’t one of them.

…Scott Lemieux has similar thoughts.