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Classmates upset Klasky's killer released early

Published Monday, July 28, 2008

PASCAGOULA (AP) — Several of Adrienne Klasky's former classmates are sending the governor an oversized letter expressing their anger and dismay about his decision to let her killer out of prison.

People who graduated from Pascagoula High School with Klasky in 1973 have been signing a 12-foot poster to send to Gov. Haley Barbour.

Barbour this month suspended the life sentence of Michael Graham, who had been working as a trusty in the Governor's Mansion. Graham is Klasky's ex-husband, and he was convicted of murder in her 1989 killing.

"We wanted to express to the governor our outrage in what he has done in letting someone like this loose," classmate Harvey Barton told WLOX-TV in Biloxi.

Witnesses said Graham stalked Klasky for three years before pulling next to her at a Pascagoula intersection and shooting her in the head as she waited for a light to change.

State Rep. Brandon Jones, D-Pascagoula, said he will deliver the poster to Barbour in August when lawmakers return to Jackson to restart a special session.

"Who knows what a 12-foot piece of butcher paper means, but we hope that it shows the raw emotion that was there. And the memory of what was by all accounts, a lovely person," Jones said.

Jones hopes to curtail a governor's right to pardon or suspend the sentence of anyone convicted of premeditated murder.

Barton said he has fond memories of Klasky.

"Adrienne was always so full of life, and always had a smile on her face, and so happy, that's the way everybody remembers her," he said.

Graham would have been eligible for parole July 12, 2010.

Barbour issued an "indefinite suspension of sentence," said Pete Smith, a spokesman for the governor. The suspension can be reversed.

The governor said last week that what he did for Graham was the equivalent of a parole and that Graham will report regularly to an officer.

Barbour said he's willing to pardon Graham if he gets a job and follows the rules during this "second chance" he's been given.

The governor said Graham was a diligent worker at the mansion. Barbour said he expects Graham "to have an unblemished record" outside prison.

Comments

Posted by Kaintuck (anonymous) on July 28, 2008 at 4:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)

It is too bad that Governor Barbour can't give Adrienne Klasky "a second chance", like the one he is providing her killer.

Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on July 29, 2008 at 1:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Amen kaintuck...

Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on July 29, 2008 at 10:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Seventeenth Amendment Shenanigans in Mississippi

A second important national electoral development took place far South of Trenton. On Monday, a state court judge in Mississippi ruled that state law required a special election to be held soon (rather than in November, as Governor Haley Barbour intended) to replace U.S. Senator Trent Lott. Lott resigned last December, and his seat is being filled for the time being by Republican Roger Wicker, whom Governor Barbour tapped under a state law provision (supported by the Seventeenth Amendment) authorizing a temporary appointment.

In state court, Barbour's team unsuccessfully argued that state law allowed the contest for Lott's seat to be deferred until the November general election. However, the court ruled instead that state statutory provisions require the election for Lott's seat to occur within 90 days of Barbour's November 26, 2007 proclamation announcing the vacancy and the need for a contest to fill it.

Under the Seventeenth Amendment, it is up to a state legislature, and not a Governor, to set (or "direct") the procedures for a popular election to fill a Senate vacancy. (In an earlier column discussing the death of a Senator from Wyoming, I explained that this power over election procedures does not allow a state legislature under the Seventeenth Amendment to pick, or constrain a Governor in picking, a replacement, but is surely allows a legislature to dictate the timing of replacement elections.)

Mississippi state law does (seemingly to save on the costs of elections) allow a replacement election to be rolled into "the [regular statewide] general election" when "the vacancy shall occur in a year that there shall be held a general state or congressional election" anyway. But Lott's vacancy was created in very late in 2007, and it therefore seems pretty clear that the vacancy did not occur "in a year that there shall be held," later in that year, a regular statewide or congressional election.

Governor Barbour seems to be relying on the fact that there was a statewide election held in Mississippi earlier in 2007 (before Lott's departure), to contend that the Lott vacancy occurred in a year "that there shall be held a statewide election." But such a reading seems very weak. It ignores the forward-looking character of the word "shall"; it ignores the use of the word "the" (underscored above), which makes clear that the general election that serves as a basis for not complying with the 90-day timeline is the very election into which the special election must be rolled; and it ignores the legislature's obvious concern for electoral efficiency underlying the whole scheme. One hopes the Mississippi appellate judges will realize all of this.
http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/amar/20080117...

Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on July 29, 2008 at 10:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

FAT cat Haley Barbour has too much power,

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=w...

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006...

http://yallerdog.blogspot.com/2007/09/ha...

and could be McCain's vp choice http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?i...

Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on July 29, 2008 at 11:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)

But, at least Graham was arrested, convicted and served a small amount of time while other Mississippi criminals are never made to pay.

Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on July 29, 2008 at 2:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)

People calling for the impeachment of Haley Barbour

http://www.gulflive.com/opinion/mississi...

I bet he's been worshipping the owl at the bohemian grove with bush.