NYT has coverage of AZ Gov. Jan Brewer’s refusal to release a likely-to-be-innocent man.
So who are the vile people in this story?
1. Jan Brewer.
Last year, the five members of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency unanimously recommended to Ms. Brewer that Mr. Macumber be released after 35 years in prison “to correct a miscarriage of justice.”
But Ms. Brewer rejected the board’s recommendation without explanation in November. It is possible that politics played a role in her decision; Ms. Brewer, a Republican who became governor last year, is running for a full term in November.
AND
P. S. Ruckman Jr., a political science professor at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., has been fuming about Ms. Brewer’s handling of the Macumber case. “I have been following state clemency for 30 years, and this is easily, easily the most disturbing,” he said. “It’s borderline despicable.”
Hey, keeping an innocent man in jail is wrong UNLESS it will help your tough-on-crime reelection campaign! How do you go to bed at night knowing that your own political ambitions are worth keeping another human being locked in a cage?
2. Carol Kempfert:
The jury did hear about two kinds of physical evidence — a partial palm print and bullet casings — that prosecutors said connected Mr. Macumber to the killings.
Mr. Kempfert said he believed that his mother had done more than lie.
“I can fully see how my mother could have set him up and framed him,” Mr. Kempfert said. “She had access to the evidence. She was doing fingerprint courses at the time.”
Granted, these claims have not been substantiated, but if they end up being true and you fabricated evidence that cost a guy 35+ years of freedom, I hope he spent the whole time reading “Count of Monte Cristo” and comes out prepared to go Edmond Dantes on your life.
The Country Estate 