Barbour Pardons Convicted Murdrers

If you're a Governor of a state and you're on your way out, what do you do? For outgoing Governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour, you pardon men who were convicted of murder. Really.

Gov. Haley Barbour's going-away present for Mississippi is to put a trio of convicted murderers back out on our streets, including two more who brutally murdered the women in their lives.

Sunday, Barbour pardoned David Glenn Gatlin. In 1993, Gatlin murdered his estranged wife, Tammy Ellis Gatlin, reportedly shooting her while she was holding their 2-month-old infant. He then shot Randy Walker, who survived. A Rankin County judge sentenced Gatlin to life in prison for murder, plus additional time for aggravated assault and burglary in 1994.

The Associated Press is reporting that he has also pardoned Anthony McCray, convicted in 2001 of killing his wife.

The Gatlin and McCray pardons raise Barbour's release record for domestic killers--men who have murdered current or former wives and girlfriends--to six. A Jackson Free Press investigation in July 2008 revealed that Barbour granted relief to five killers that year, four of whom killed women.

I understand that governors have the power to wave pardon on anyone they choose, but the fact he used that power to set convicted murderers free is ghoulish and unfathomable for any acting Governor or individual holding public office to sign off on.