NewsMax.com
Thursday, June 7, 2001

The Post Prison Transfer Board recommended in February that the governor deny Hale's request for clemency, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Wednesday.

Huckabee told the newspaper that he seldom contradicted the board but that it made no sense to imprison the ailing Hale, convicted in 1999 of state insurance fraud.

"As an inmate, [the state] assumes liability for his medical expenses," Huckabee said. "There's not a point to be made at this time to put him in prison for 21 days. We're not letting him off. We're letting the taxpayers off. When you look at a 21-day sentence, what is the point?"

Hale served 24 months in prison for conspiracy and mail fraud in the federal Whitewater case. He was the main witness in the 1996 trial of Democrat Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. After Tucker's conviction, Huckabee, a Republican and then lieutenant governor, became governor.

"To my knowledge, David Hale is a huge Democrat. I'm not doing some favor for somebody who's done me a favor, to my knowledge. I don't know the guy. I haven't run in his circles," Huckabee told the Democrat-Gazette.

Tucker, a consultant for Acrossasia Multimedia in Hong Kong, told the newspaper: "The commutation and pardon power is part of the power of a chief executive. It should be used when the governor thinks it's appropriate."

Hale's attorney, David Bowden of Little Rock, has said the state charge was brought by Democrats solely to punish Hale for testifying against Tucker and cooperating in the Whitewater investigation.

"I'm gratified Gov. Huckabee has decided to take a look at it," Bowden said. "He's a Christian and compassionate man."

During his state trial, a tearful Hale testified: "I had a wife and two kids, and the federal government had seized everything we owned. We had to sell sheets from our house just to pay the bills."

NewsMax.com readers flooded Huckabee with pleas for clemency for Hale, who blew the whistle on Bill and Hillary Clinton in the probe of the Whitewater land deal.

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