Legal Research

After Killer's Release, Mississippi Politician Wants To Strip Governor of Pardon Power

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, July 29, 2008.

"Brandon Jones remembers well when Adrienne Klasky Graham's ex-husband gunned her down at a busy intersection in Pascagoula, Miss., reports the Gulfport SunHerald. 'All of us living in Pascagoula in 1989 remember that day,' said Jones, now a young attorney representing Pascagoula in the Legislature. 'And to know that someone can shoot someone in the plain light of day and walk free less than 20 years later. The governor's action has broken open a lot of old wounds and it offends the community's sense of justice and safety." "

"Gov. Haley Barbour freed her killer, Michael David Graham, who was convicted of murder in 1989 and received a life sentence. Barbour suspended his sentence last week and released him from the prison system with restrictions much like those of a parolee. Graham had served more than four years as a trusty doing custodial work at the Governor's Mansion and before that had a record of hard work and good behavior. Jones called that 'just a punch in the gut for the people who lived through this' ".

Gulfport (Miss.) SunHerald

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on July 29, 2008 (boomark / email).