Bring a blade; you'll need it to cut through the hypocrisy Bevin's exhibiting on his way out the door. There's even more depravity in the Courier Journal than these selections indicate.“The family of a man pardoned by Gov. Matt Bevin (R) for a homicide and other crimes in a fatal 2014 Knox County home invasion raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser last year to retire debt from Bevin’s 2015 gubernatorial campaign,” the Louisville Courier Journal reports.
“The Friday order was one of 428 pardons and commutations Bevin issued since his narrow loss in November … The beneficiaries include one offender convicted of raping a child, another who hired a hit man to kill his business partner and a third who killed his parents.”
What'll you bet murderer Leif chumped Bevin w/ a jailhouse conversion?In a pardon order Friday, Bevin said Baker had made “a series of unwise decisions in his adult life” and that his drug addiction “resulted in his association with people that in turn led to his arrest, prosecution and conviction for murder.”
Bevin wrote that the evidence supporting Baker’s conviction is “sketchy at best. I am not convinced that justice has been served on the death of Donald Mills, nor am I convinced that the evidence has proven the involvement of Patrick Baker as a murderer.”
[...]
Judge David Williams, the former president of the Kentucky Senate, sentenced Baker in 2017. He said in 30 years of practice: “I’ve never seen a more compelling or complete case … the evidence was just overwhelming.”
Steele said in an email to a Courier Journal reporter that Baker was the most culpable of the defendants because “he was the one who shot Mr. Mills.”
According to his indictment, Baker and co-defendant Christopher Bradley Wagner posed as law enforcement officials to force their way into Mills’ home, where they fought with Mills before Baker shot him.
They also restrained Mills' wife and took various items from the house. Three children were also in the home at the time of the crime.
Wagner, who was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter and robbery, is still serving his sentence, as is Elijah Message, who got 20 years for second-degree manslaughter and robbery.
[...]
He pardoned Micah Schoettle, who was convicted last year of raping a 9-year-old child in Kenton County and sentenced last year to 23 years in prison.
Bevin wrote that Schoettle was convicted of a heinous crime "based only on testimony that was not supported by any physical evidence.” He added that the case “was investigated and prosecuted in a manner that was sloppy at best. I do not believe that the charges against Mr. Schoettle are true.”
But that explanation infuriated Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders, who prosecuted Schoettle.
“So, I guess Matt Bevin thinks he’s smarter than the 12 citizens that heard the actual evidence,” Sanders said. “I’ve got news for him: Child molesting rarely happens in front of witnesses or leaves physical evidence. If we didn’t pursue those cases, 99% of child rapists would never be prosecuted.”
"This irresponsible manipulation of the justice system is why the public’s confidence is constantly eroded," Sanders added. "No one from the Bevin administration gave any warning this was coming. If they had, we’d have shown them why these rapists and killers were behind bars to begin with. These pardons regurgitate false statements of defense attorneys that juries of Kentucky citizens obviously didn’t believe."
[...]
Leif Halvorsen, who was sentenced to death in Fayette County for the murder of three people — Jacqueline Green, Joe Norman and Joey Durham — in 1983.
Bevin's pardon and commutation stated only that “Leif has a powerful voice that needs to be heard by more people.”
Vanity hell, all is hypocrisy.
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