On his way out the door, a governor issued pardons for hundreds of criminals, but it was not a Democrat.
No, it was Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, who has issued hundreds of pardons since he lost the election on November 5.
Controversial Pardons
I won’t say that Bevin has not done some good while he was in office, because he has, but that has all now been tainted by acts that wreak of corruption.
Bevin has apparently put the pardon pen up for sale as governor.
For instance, a convicted murderer was the beneficiary of one of Bevin’s pardons.
The family of that man, however, raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser for Bevin last year.
Not only that, but the man’s brother and sister-in-law donated $4,000 of that money during the same fundraiser.
Bevin tried to justify the pardon by saying that drugs were to blame as were a bad crowd that the man had fallen into.
However, on the surface, it clearly appears as though Bevin offered pardons for money, period.
The man that was pardoned, Patrick Brian Baker, posed as a police officer to gain entry into a home.
The victim was shot in the face right in front of his wife.
Under Investigation
While people like Baker are free now, that may not be the case very long.
The state House has already stated it will be investigating the ties to these pardons and they should be.
Bevin has offered up some rather lame excuses for these pardons, but it seems quite clear this was a case of one hand washing the other.
If Bevin is found to have done something illegal, he deserves to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Republican State Senator Chris McDaniel agrees, stating, “If a governor wants to use the power to commute and pardon, he should be willing to stand in front of the voters and be held accountable for those actions.”
Bevin is an embarrassment to the party, to say the least. At a time when we are trying to clean up our government, he has the audacity to betray the party with such blatant corruption.