Romney, Huckabee, Pardons and Libby

In this AP story (here) the clemency policies of Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are discussed, with possible consequence for Scooter Libby. Among other things, the article notes:

BOSTON (AP) — Mitt Romney's new TV commercial questions the judgment of Mike Huckabee, his fellow Republican presidential contender ...

... his second commercial assailing Huckabee's record takes a turn for the negative. "Romney got tough on drugs like meth. He never pardoned a single criminal. And Mike Huckabee?" the spot asks. "He granted 1,033 pardons and commutations, including 12 convicted murderers. Huckabee granted more clemencies than the previous three governors combined ... "

... The spot then cites an Associated Press report noting [Romney's] denial of all pardon and commutation requests while governor of Massachusetts from 2003 through this past January. In all, there were 100 requests for commutations and 172 for pardons.

Political analysts have suggested Romney crafted guidelines for issuing pardons and commutations that ensured he would never have to grant either, sparing him of any repeat of the Willie Horton case ...

Romney denied any political motivation ... "We looked at the cases one by one, and I did not want to provide commutations to people who had had weapons violations that were going to be asking to use weapons in their new capacity," Romney said. He said the only reasons he would have issued a pardon or commutation would have been if he found evidence that proved a wrongful conviction, prosecutorial misconduct or errors in the judicial process.

Today, Romney uses the latter rationales for explaining why he would be open to considering a pardon for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former White House aide convicted of perjury in the CIA leak case.

Huckabee has issued an official response to the above mentioned ad (here) which says, among other things:

The ad also states that Romney “never pardoned a single criminal.” But this begs the question: how many clemency cases did he actually review while he was governor of Massachusetts? Or did he simply avoid his responsibility as chief executive of the state to review clemency cases and give petitioners a fair hearing? The ad also points out that Governor Huckabee granted more clemencies than the “previous three governors…combined.” It doesn’t mention that two of the previous three governors were Bill Clinton and convicted felon Jim Guy Tucker. Governor Huckabee’s clemency rate, however, was in line with other governors who have served the state.

Romney also fails to acknowledge that in Arkansas, every person who is convicted of a crime and every person in prison is eligible for clemency. Because of this, the number of clemency applications is extraordinarily high. Governor Huckabee had 8,698 applications during his 10 ½ years in office.

Some Governors are content to simply deny the vast majority of clemency applications without bothering to consider their merit. Governor Huckabee, however, believed that respect for the legal process required that he give them the consideration for which they were entitled. During his tenure, Governor Huckabee denied 88 percent of the applications.

... Governor Huckabee found during his time in office that each year the number of people needing clemency to clear their record increased. Denying their request prevented them from continuing to earn a good living and pay taxes. The majority of the clemency requests he granted were for this reason.