Kayla Epstein, WaPo:
Matt Bevin is no longer the governor of Kentucky, but his decisions continued to send shock waves through the state’s legal system this week after he issued pardons for hundreds of people, some of whom committed violent offenses.
Bevin issued 428 pardons since his defeat to Democrat Andy Beshear in a close election in November, the Louisville Courier Journal reported. His list includes a man convicted of reckless homicide, a convicted child rapist, a man who murdered his parents at age 16 and a woman who threw her newborn in the trash after giving birth in a flea market outhouse.
He also pardoned Dayton Jones, who was convicted in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy at a party, Kentucky New Era reported.
It is not unusual for governors to issue pardons as they leave office, but Bevin’s actions boggled some of the state’s attorneys, who questioned his judgment.
“What this governor did is an absolute atrocity of justice,” said Commonwealth Attorney Jackie Steele, a prosecutor for Knox and Laurel counties. “He’s put victims, he’s put others in our community in danger.”
And the kicker:
“I’m a big believer in second chances,” Bevin said in a message left with The Washington Post on Thursday afternoon. “I think this is a nation that was founded on the concept of redemption and second chances and new pages in life.”
Can you say, "What a crock of shit that is"? I knew you could.
Outside of when they're taking about themselves and their god-knobber buddies, when was the last time you heard any Republican touting the value of giving anybody a second chance at anything - especially when the topic is crime and prison and shit?
There's something else at work here, and I'm gonna let the paranoia fly - I think it's a weird variation on Daddy State Awareness rule 3:
Every prediction of some dire consequence is a threat of the pain they intend to cause - or a signal that they’re already causing that pain - in an attempt to coerce us to do what they want.
First, I'll go ahead and say Bevins isn't actually mentally ill - no more than the usual pathologies that beset "conservatives" anyway.
So second, what Bevins is doing is planting time bombs that he figures will explode somewhere down the road "on the Democrats' watch".
The main point is that he's sending a signal. ie: "You rejected me and now I will rain fire and fury down upon you. So don't do that again - we don't mind making it worse."
Alternate: Matt Bevins is guilty of some really bad shit and he's trying to soften things up a little so it doesn't land quite so heavily on his pointy little head when it comes out.
