Court OKs Barbour pardons

Published 2:10 pm Thursday, March 8, 2012

In their 6-3 opinion, the justices wrote “we are compelled to hold that — in each of the cases before us — it fell to the governor alone to decide whether the Constitution’s publication requirement was met.”

Republican Barbour pardoned 198 people before finishing his second term Jan. 10, including four convicted murderers and a robber who worked as inmate trusties at the Governor’s Mansion. Of those pardoned, 10 were in jail at the time.

Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood challenged the pardons. Hood argued before the Supreme Court on Feb. 9 that some pardons didn’t meet the requirements of the Mississippi Constitution, which says people seeking pardons must publish notices for 30 days in a newspaper.

Hood had contended the trusties and about 165 others didn’t meet that requirement.

Barbour’s lawyer and the attorneys representing some of the pardon recipients had argued that a Mississippi governor’s pardon power can’t be challenged because of the separation of powers for different branches of government.