Huckabee calls criticism over Wash. shooting suspect’s 2000 clemency ‘disgusting’

Huckabee: Critics use clemency for political gain

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says that some of the criticism he’s received for commuting the sentence of a man later suspected of gunning down four police officers is “disgusting.”

The former presidential candidate said Tuesday that opponents are trying to use his commutation of Maurice Clemmons in 2000 as a political weapon against him. Clemmons was shot and killed by a policeman in Seattle early Tuesday morning.

In an interview on Joe Scarborough’s radio show on WABC-AM in New York, Huckabee said that the focus should be on the families of the four officers Clemmons was suspected of killing Sunday.

As governor, Huckabee in 2000 commuted Clemmons’ 108-year sentence for robbery and several other crimes and made him eligible for parole. The state parole board released Clemmons later that year.