Mississippi High Court Upholds Haley Barbour’s Pardons
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JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(JACKSON, Miss.) — The Mississippi Supreme Court had the final word on the controversial pardons issued by former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, and on Thursday voted six to three that Barbour didn’t do anything wrong.
Barbour created a big hoopla in the state before he left office last January by granting nearly 200 pardons that included 10 people still in jail. It also turned out that four pardons were issued to convicted killers who had served their time.
What also got under the skin of many Mississippians was that some of the people pardoned by Barbour worked in his mansion as “trustees” under a program for former inmates.
Barbour’s final act as governor created a furor in Mississippi, with Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood suing to overturn the pardons on the grounds that some did not fulfill the state constitution’s requirements that notices for pardons be made public in the newspaper 30 days beforehand.
Nonetheless, the Mississippi high court ruled that it was entirely up to Barbour to decide whether the publication requirement was sufficient.
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