‘Informal’ advice threatens prison pardons in Miss.

Some may have violated notice rule

JACKSON, Miss. — Some of those pardoned by former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour might not have complied with rules requiring adequate public notice because they received vague instructions from the state Parole Board and local newspapers.

Atty. Gen. Jim Hood is challenging dozens of pardons, and a hearing is set for Monday in Hinds County Circuit Court. Hood wants to return those who were freed by Barbour, including convicted killers, to the prison system.

The vast majority of people who could be stripped of their pardons wouldn’t be sent back to prison because they were out before Barbour’s action.

Parole Board chairwoman Shannon Warnock told The Associated Press Friday that she “informally” told people to publish notices of their pardons “for a month” in newspapers in the areas where they were convicted, as constitutionally required. But Warnock said some weekly newspapers told applicants they could publish once a week for four weeks.

Warnock was responding to questions about people who told the AP they were afraid of losing their pardons even though they followed the board’s advice.

“I can confirm that. I informally said to publish for a month and you need to publish in the county in which you were convicted. A lot of people then followed the advice and counsel of the weekly newspapers (in their towns), which was to publish once a week for four weeks,” Warnock said.

She had no further comment.

Hood contends once -aweek publication for four weeks doesn’t meet the Constitution’s requirement of publication for 30 days.

Section 124 of the Mississippi Constitution says that in felony cases, no pardon “shall be granted until the applicant therefor shall have published for thirty days, in some newspaper in the county where the crime was committed, and in the case there be no newspaper published in said county, then in an adjoining county ...”

“The law clearly says 30 days. Four weeks is only 28 days,” Hood said.

The Mississippi law does not mention weekly newspapers.

It’s not clear how many people may have gotten the ambiguous advice. Hood’s office said Friday only 22 out of nearly 200 people pardoned met the notification requirements.

Barbour, a Republican who ended his second term Jan. 10, created a political backlash because some of the people he pardoned had been convicted of violent crimes. Five of them had been serving life sentences — four for murder and one for robbery. They had worked as prison trusties at the Governor’s Mansion.

Hood, the lone Democrat in state office, challenged those pardons in court Jan. 11. He filed an amended complaint this week seeking to block dozens of other pardons. Many of those people were convicted decades ago of comparatively minor crimes, like marijuana possession or burglary, and had lived lawful, productive lives since them.

Barbour stressed last week that 189 of the people who received clemency were already out of prison and some had been for years. The former governor has said his pardons are legal and accused Hood of partisan politics.