"No files on pardoned Miss. killers; Men were among 198 helped by outgoing Barbour" by Holbrook Mohr | Associated Press, January 26, 2012
JACKSON, Miss. - Pardon
files are missing or do not exist for four
convicted killers and another man who worked as trusties at the governor’s mansion and were
pardoned by former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour during his final days in office.
The Associated Press made public records requests for such documents, but state officials said yesterday that they do not have them on the trusties and some others pardoned by Barbour, a two-term Republican governor who left office this month.
Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat who has filed a legal challenge to dozens of the 198 pardons issued by Barbour at the end of his second term, said about 20 files are missing from a batch of several boxes that his office is examining.
Barbour’s lawyers said in court records that pardon files, which generally contain letters and other supporting documents that offer insights into the pardon process, don’t exist for the trusties.
“Mansion trusties do not have pardon files at the governor’s office or at the Parole Board.
They have in a sense ‘living files’ because the governor and the first lady, as well as the highway patrolmen assigned to the governor’s security, observe them every day and provide the information on which the governor makes his decisions as to clemency,’’ according to a footnote in a legal brief in which Barbour’s attorneys argue that the pardons were valid and should be upheld....
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Related: Pardon Me Over Mississippi Post
