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Haley Barbour, our governor here in Mississippi, is a corpulent ruddy faced man with a voice straight out of Hollywood casting for the stereotypical southern sheriff. ("You in a heap 'o trouble, boy!")
Barbour is in a heap 'o trouble himself right now. He caused an uproar when he let a convicted killer out of prison. Back in 1989, Michael David Graham pulled up to a red light and shot his ex-wife in the face as she sat in her car at Pascagoula Mississippi. Graham had been stalking her.
But a life sentence in prison seems not to have been much of a problem for Graham. He had lived and worked on the governor's mansion grounds instead of prison, as a "trusty, " in a program that rewards inmates for good behavior.
Without consulting anyone, Barbour decides to suspend Graham's life sentence. Barbour says this is the first time he has used his gubernatorial powers to suspend an inmate's life sentence-- which proved to be a lie, as he did the same thing for another murderer in 2006.
The Mississippi Dept. of Corrections, ordinary citizens, the sheriff of the county where the crime occurred, the victim's family are all appalled and incensed. The governor has not been responsive to requests to reconsider his ruling. WHO does Barbour think he is, that won't consult anyone before he does something like that?
Oh--I forgot. He's a Republican, bosom buddy with GW Bush (that tells you something right there) and a tobacco lobbyist, in the last months of his second term. He's an elitist who thinks he doesn't have to answer to anyone for his decisions. Susil
