"Dumond - now dead - was paroled from an Arkansas prison, with then- governor Huckabee’s endorsement, only to sexually assault and kill a woman in Missouri.
Dumond’s case is notorious in Arkansas. In 1984, he raped a 17-year-old girl. While awaiting trial at his home, he was castrated by, he said, masked intruders. Later, after Dumond went to prison for life, some people in Arkansas saw the sentence as excessive, especially given his mutilation.
Huckabee was one, and, after becoming governor in 1996, he announced his desire to commute Dumond’s sentence. Dumond’s rape victim, Ashley Stevens, saw it differently.
Stevens, now 40 and living in the western United States, said she tried to persuade Huckabee not to shorten the sentence for Dumond.
“I told [Huckabee]: If you ever let him out, he’s going to do it again,” she said in an interview.
She was able to get a meeting with the governor - who, she said, had not spoken to her before announcing his intention to commute Dumond’s sentence - but realized Huckabee had “made up his mind.” So Stevens stood up, she said, walked over to Huckabee, who was seated on a sofa, squatted down and thrust her face inches from his.
“I said, ‘This is how close I was to Dumond’s face for an hour,’ “ Stevens recalled. “ ‘I’ll never forget his face, and you’ll never forget mine.’ “
The parole board - following a closed meeting with Huckabee - decided to let Dumond go. The following year, Dumond committed the Missouri slaying. He died in prison in 2005. "
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2007-10-28
05:49:08
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