‘Gonna kill as many of them devils as I can until I can’t kill no more’
MAURICE Clemmons had a long history of convictions and trouble with the law, stretching back to when he was just 16.
In 1989, he was convicted in the state of Arkansas of aggravated robbery and ordered to serve consecutive sentences totalling 108 years.
And there, in jail, Clemmons’s story would have ended if not for a commutation of his sentence by Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in 2000.
Clemmons had applied for clemency after serving just10 years of his sentence, saying he had “learned through the school of hard knocks to appreciate and respect the rights of others”.
Clemency
The governor’s board recommended clemency unanimously, making Clemmons eligible for parole. It was granted that same year.
DELUDED: Clemmons believed he was Jesus when he shot cops
He had more scrapes with the law almost immediately, but no charges resulted.
Then he was granted a parole transfer in 2004 and moved to Washington, where he soon had a house, a child and a landscaping business
He had no other troubles with the law until May 9, 2009, when police responded to a domestic violence call.
Clemmons was arrested for throwing rocks and breaking windows around his neighbourhood and then for assaulting a sheriff. He was bailed out of jail the next day – only to sexually assault a 12-year-old relative the next night.
He was arrested in Washington on the rape charge on July 1, 2009.
He stayed in jail until July 24, when Arkansas mysteriously dropped its warrant, allowing Clemmons to be bailed out again.
Washington police, anxious to get him back behind bars, issued a special warrant against him on August 19, and he was arrested within a day whilst out walking his dog.
He served 40 days on that warrant and then became eligible for bail on the assault and child-rape charges. Then Clemmons dropped out of sight.
If police had realised what Clemmons had been spouting in taped jailhouse phone calls, they would have known exactly how dangerous and delusional he was.
He had begun to think of himself as Jesus Christ or God.
His taped conversations took an ominous turn. He believed that the devil, in the form of the criminal justice system, was out to keep him from his righteous path.
“Next time a police pull me over and I ain’t did nothing, I’m gonna shoot him dead in the face, I swear, it bro,” said Clemmons on secret jail recordings.
“The strategy is gonna go kill as many of them devils as I can until I can’t kill no more. That’s the strategy.”
Driving
He said he wanted the families of police officers to cry and said he was “going to give them what they’ve been looking for – a dangerous n*****”.
After making bail for the last time, he resolved to act on those wishes.
On that morning of November 29, 2009, he talked an ex-con friend into driving him around.
They noticed several police cars at the Forza Coffee Company and so Clemmons ordered the driver to turn around and park nearby.
He got out and walked
MURDERED IN THE LINE OF DU into the coffee shop, a common place for officers in Lakewood and neighbouring areas to meet.
He walked straight over to the officers’ table, produced a 9mm Glock pistol, and without a word shot Griswold in the back of her head, killing her instantly.
Clemmons then turned and shot Renninger in