Bevin Pardons Include Convicted Killer Whose Brother Hosted Campaign Fundraiser for Him

Bevin pardons include convicted killer whose brother hosted campaign fundraiser for him

Andrew Wolfson and Joe Sonka, Courier Dec. 11, 2019

Using his executive powers, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin issued hundreds of pardons and commutations during his last days in office in 2019. Louisville Courier Journal

The family of a man pardoned by Gov. Matt Bevin for a homicide and other crimes in a fatal 2014 Knox County home invasion raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser last year to retire debt from Bevin’s 2015 gubernatorial campaign.

The brother and sister-in-law of offender Patrick Brian Baker also gave $4,000 to Bevin’s campaign on the day of the fundraiser, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance database.

A photo of Bevin attending the July 26, 2018, fundraiser at the home of Eric and Kathryn Baker in Corbin was published six days later in a local paper, the News Journal.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele, who prosecuted Patrick Baker and other defendants for the 2014 death of Donald Mills, told The Courier Journal on Wednesday it would be an “understatement to say I am aggrieved” by Bevin’s pardon.

Steele identified Patrick Baker as the brother of Eric Baker, who hosted the Bevin fundraiser at his Corbin home.

The Friday order was one of 428 pardons and commutations Bevin issued since his narrow loss in November to Democrat Andy Beshear, who was sworn into office Tuesday.

The beneficiaries include one offender convicted of raping a child, another who hired a hit man to kill his business partner and a third who killed his parents.\

Steele noted Baker served two years of a 19-year sentence on his conviction for reckless homicide, robbery, impersonating a peace officer and tampering with evidence.

Steele, who, like Bevin, is a Republican, also cited the fact that two of Baker’s co-defendants are still in prison. "What makes Mr. Baker any different than the other two?" he asked.

Answering that question, he said he believes Baker was pardoned while the others remain locked up because Baker’s family has given generously to Bevin. State records show that Victoria Baker, who lives at the same Corbin address where the fundraiser was held, donated $1,000 in 2015 and that Kathryn Baker gave another $500 to Bevin’s reelection in March.

In a pardon order Friday, Bevin said Baker had made “a series of unwise decisions in his adult life” and that his drug addiction “resulted in his association with people that in turn led to his arrest, prosecution and conviction for murder.” Bevin wrote that the evidence supporting Baker’s conviction is “sketchy at best. I am not convinced that justice has been served on the death of Donald Mills, nor am I convinced that the evidence has proven the involvement of Patrick Baker as a murderer.”

(Although the pardon says Baker was convicted of murder, court records show that was amended to reckless homicide.)

Bevin commuted his sentence to time served and gave him a pardon.

State prison records showed that Baker, 41, was still at Northpoint Training Center on Wednesday.

If not for Bevin’s clemency order, Baker would not have been eligible for parole until July 2027. The minimum date for expiration of his sentence would have been January 2034.

Eric Baker could not be reached for comment. A woman who identified herself as Kathryn Baker immediately hung up on a Courier Journal reporter Wednesday night after he mentioned the pardon of Patrick Baker and did not answer follow-up phone calls.

There was no answer at Eric and Kathryn Baker's listed address Thursday morning when a reporter rang the buzzer at the gate.

The manager for Bevin’s reelection campaign, Davis Paine, and the governor's former chief of staff, Blake Brickman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Judge David Williams, the former president of the Kentucky Senate, sentenced Baker in 2017. He said in 30 years of practice: “I’ve never seen a more compelling or complete case … the evidence was just overwhelming.”

Steele said in an email to a Courier Journal reporter that Baker was the most culpable of the defendants because “he was the one who shot Mr. Mills.”

According to his indictment, Baker and co-defendant Christopher Bradley Wagner posed as law enforcement officials to force their way into Mills’ home, where they fought with Mills before Baker shot him.

They also restrained Mills' wife and took various items from the house. Three children were also in the home at the time of the crime.

Wagner, who was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter and robbery, is still serving his sentence, as is Elijah Message, who got 20 years for second-degree manslaughter and robbery.

Bevin issued 428 pardons and commutations from Election Day through the end of his term Monday, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

He pardoned Micah Schoettle, who was convicted last year of raping a 9-year-old child in Kenton County and sentenced last year to 23 years in prison.

Bevin wrote that Schoettle was convicted of a heinous crime "based only on testimony that was not supported by any physical evidence.” He added that the case “was investigated and prosecuted in a manner that was sloppy at best. I do not believe that the charges against Mr. Schoettle are true.” But that explanation infuriated Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders, who prosecuted Schoettle.

“So, I guess Matt Bevin thinks he’s smarter than the 12 citizens that heard the actual evidence,” Sanders said. “I’ve got news for him: Child molesting rarely happens in front of witnesses or leaves physical evidence. If we didn’t pursue those cases, 99% of child rapists would never be prosecuted.”

"This irresponsible manipulation of the justice system is why the public’s confidence is constantly eroded," Sanders added. "No one from the Bevin administration gave any warning this was coming. If they had, we’d have shown them why these rapists and killers were behind bars to begin with. These pardons regurgitate false statements of

Bevin also pardoned:

• Kathy Harless, who was convicted of murder in Grayson County in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison after she gave birth in a flea market outhouse and threw the baby in a cesspool. Bevin wrote that she had "paid enough for the death of her newborn son.”

• Blake Walker, who was convicted in 2003 in Adair County of killing his parents, Barbara Peterson, 55, a Lindsey Wilson College teacher, and her husband, Brian Walker, 54, who worked in construction and was a former Peace Corps volunteer, and leaving their bodies in a basement. He was 16 at the time.

• Bevin wrote that Walker, now 33, is "blessed by a loving and forgiving family and it is this alone that tips the delicate balance in the direction of his request."

He also said that while Walker committed a crime "for which only God can provide true forgiveness," he was commuting Walker's sentence "so that he can proceed with his life, unrestricted in his efforts to serve the world and the needs of others in a way that would best honor the lives and life work of his mother and father."

But Adair Commonwealth’s Attorney Brian Wright, who prosecuted Walker, said he was "disgusted, frustrated and upset" by the pardon, which he called a travesty. He said Bevin's office never consulted him about it, and that Walker agreed to the sentence in a plea agreement.

• Irvin Edge, who was convicted of murder and solicitation to murder for hiring a hit man to kill his business partner in 1991 in Daviess County. According to court records, the killer came to victim Charles Westerfield’s door, asked to see him, and then shot and killed him in front of his family members. He was sentenced to life, and in 2004, the Parole Board ordered him to serve out that sentence.

Bevin gave no reason for the pardon.

• Leif Halvorsen, who was sentenced to death in Fayette County for the murder of three people — Jacqueline Green, Joe Norman and Joey Durham — in 1983.

Bevin commuted Halvorsen's two death sentences to life with the possibility of parole, stating only that “Leif has a powerful voice that needs to be heard by more people.”

• Kurt Robert Smith, who as a 17-year-old was convicted in 2002 in Fayette County of the murder of his 6-week-old baby, Blake, whose brain was so swollen that the seams between the bones in his skull were pushed half an inch apart, a state medical examiner testified. Bevin said Smith had been "duly punished" for a crime 18 years ago. "I am confident that he will become a productive member of society and encourage him to use his life experience to educate and help others," Bevin wrote.

• Daniel Scott Grubb, who was sentenced to life in prison in Knox County in 2010 for the murder of Jeremy Johnson. According to news accounts, Grubb claimed both were drunk when he threw a cinder block at him, and after finding his body the next day, panicked and enlisted a friend to bury the body.

• Bevin wrote that "drugs, alcohol and a tragic accident resulted in the death of one friend perpetrated by another. Daniel Grubb made a series of bad decisions that forever altered the lives of many people in a negative way.”

Bevin said the pardon came with “the expectation that Mr. Grubb will live his life as a model citizen in a way that will bring honor to his family and to the memory of his friend."

Bevin conditioned one pardon — of Michael Hardy, who was convicted in Warren County of the 2014 wanton murder of Jeremy Pryor — on Hardy refraining from any consumption of alcohol and sharing his story “in schools, churches and other gatherings no less than six times per year for at least the next 20 years.”

“I do not believe that society, as a whole, or the memory of Jeremy Pryor more specifically, will be best served by the continued incarceration of Mr. Hardy,” Bevin wrote.

He said he hoped Hardy's pardon would provide “a teachable lesson for others of all ages (but especially young people).”

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; [email protected]; Twitter: @adwolfson. Reach reporter Joe Sonka at [email protected] or 502-582-4472 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.

PARDON PULITER 2

'Matt Bevin can rot in hell': Family of murder victim reacts to pardon of donor's relative

Ben Tobin, Andrew Wolfson and Joe Sonka, Dec. 12, 2019 |

CORBIN, Ky. — Family members of murder victim Donald Mills had choice words for former Gov. Matt Bevin over his pardon of Patrick Baker, whose family held a campaign fundraiser for Bevin at their Corbin home last year.

"Matt Bevin can rot in hell," said Melinda Mills, the older sister of Donald, in a Thursday interview with The Courier Journal.

Baker received one of the hundreds of pardons and commutations issued by Bevin in his final days as governor. He and two other men, Elijah Messer and Christopher Wagner, were found guilty by a Knox County jury in 2017 of conspiring to invade and rob the home of Mills in 2014, who was shot and killed in front of his family.

Released from prison this week, Baker served two years of a 19-year sentence for reckless homicide, robbery, impersonating a peace officer and tampering with evidence.

As The Courier Journal first reported Wednesday, Eric and Kathryn Baker — the brother and sister-in-law of Patrick Baker — hosted a political fundraiser on July 26, 2018, for Bevin. The governor raised $21,500 for his 2015 campaign account at the event, which could be used to repay some of the debt from the $4 million personal loan Bevin gave to his campaign that year.

Family members of Mills — as well as the attorneys of the co-defendants in the crime who are still in jail — all characterized the pardon as a gross miscarriage of justice and suggested Baker's freedom was "bought" by a wealthy family.

Phyllis Mills, who lives just down the road from the house where her son, Donald, was killed in the tiny town of Scalf, broke down in tears as she described the events of that day in 2014, when her son "died in my arms."

Mills went on to suggest the Bakers' purchased the pardon from Bevin with campaign funds, saying the governor "had no business to turn him l

"At his brother's house, they had a big fundraiser and raised $21,500," Mills said. "I think that's bribery to turn him loose. ... He's done crooked work and he needs to be investigated."

While Bevin's pardon of Baker stated that the evidence against him was weak, Mills strongly disagreed.

"You don't just look at a piece of paper and holler the evidence wasn't there, because he was not in the courtroom," Mills said. "The evidence was there. Judge Williams said there was overwhelming evidence. ... He said I've never seen that much evidence in a case."

Melinda Mills, who works as a cook for Knox County Public Schools, said she "would love to run into Matt Bevin in public. I would probably explode on him."

She said that many people in Knox County have already expressed outrage about Baker's pardon, "especially with the money involved."

"Nobody else is getting pardoned whose family didn't hold a fundraiser for the governor," said Mills, noting the other co-defendants are still serving long sentences. "This family brings him in their home and gets a pardon."

Kathryn Baker immediately hung up on a Courier Journal reporter on Wednesday when Patrick Baker's pardon was mentioned. No one answered when a Courier Journal reporter rang a buzzer at the gate at the Bakers' estate in Corbin on Thursday morning. Stefan Bing, the attorney who handled Patrick Baker’s unsuccessful appeal of his conviction, declined to comment on the role of the Baker family’s fundraising in securing the pardon, or if he helped write the application for the pardon.

Bing said he concurs with Bevin’s explanation in the pardon order, which stated that the evidence against Baker was “sketchy” and didn’t prove his guilt. Judge David Williams, the former Republican president of the Kentucky Senate who tried the case in 2017, said at time that “I’ve never seen a more compelling or complete case” and that the "evidence was overwhelming.”

Asked about that discrepancy in views on the evidence in the case, Bing would say only, “I agree with the governor.”

Whitten Stone, the attorney who represented Baker co-defendant Elijah Messer, said in an email to The Courier Journal he is "absolutely appalled" by the pardon of Baker, which he says "flies in the face of everything for which our justice system stands."

"My client … was sentenced to 50 years, while the facts at both trials established that he never went in the house, and in fact, was not even at the house where the killing occurred," Stone wrote. "The facts at both trials established that Patrick Baker killed Donald Mills in front of Mills's wife and children."

Stone added: "To issue a pardon to Patrick Baker, after his family donated over $20,000 to the governor's campaign, while Mr. Messer — an indigent and disabled man — will likely spend his entire life either in prison or on parole, is not only unjust and outrageous but is antithetical to the very core principle that our justice system relies upon: equal protection of the law. If anyone deserves a pardon here, it is Mr. Messer. Unfortunately, he cannot afford to pay for one."

Assistant public advocate Cotha Hudson, another attorney for Messer, stated in an email that she is "extremely disappointed that Bevin would pardon the one who actually shot and killed Mr. Mills."

Hudson added, "It's very clear to me that this pardon was purchased," as "my client doesn't have a wealthy family so he did not receive a pardon."

Authorities of Kentucky's constitution say a governor cannot rescind a pardon or commutation issued by a previous governor, if all the required procedural steps were followed.

Louisville attorney and constitutional expert Sheryl Snyder said a pardon grants rights that “vest in the recipient.” University of Kentucky constitutional law professor Scott Bauries said rescinding a pardon might be a violation of the constitutional protection against double jeopardy.

However, Bevin's pardon of Baker still has drawn calls for investigations to look into the circumstances of the pardon, particularly in relation to political donations.

Former state Auditor Adam Edelen tweeted Wednesday night that "a credible accusation of selling a pardon demands the legislature and the new Attorney General fully exercise their oversight responsibility. I worked with the FBI weekly as state auditor. I guarantee this hasn’t gone unnoticed."

Edelen told The Courier Journal on Wednesday that the FBI has an aggressive anti-corruption focus at the state level and "knows when a butterfly lands on the floral clock at the state capitol. I'm sure this hasn't escaped their attention. N

Spokespersons for Gov. Andy Beshear, who was sworn into office on Tuesday, did not respond to requests for comment about Bevin's pardon of Baker and calls for investigations.

Republican Attorney General-elect Daniel Cameron, who will be sworn into office next week, told The Courier Journal in an emailed statement that while the state constitution grants governors the right to pardon, such power should be used "sparingly and only after great deliberation with due regard to public safety."

"Kentucky’s prosecutors do an outstanding job of bringing to justice those individuals who have committed a crime, and I stand by these prosecutors," Cameron said. "I also respect the decisions of juries who convict wrongdoers."

Cameron's statement did not specifically address if his office would conduct an investigation into the pardon. Two of the top appointees in Cameron's office worked for the past four years as Bevin's general counsel and deputy general counsel.

Senate Democratic Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, told The Courier Journal he will call for Cameron to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate the pardon of Baker, in order to assure that politics is removed from the equation.

"This is the kind of thing that makes people really distrust government," McGarvey said. "Let's try to salvage that."

Asked if federal authorities are looking at the pardon of Baker, Tim Beam, a spokesman and general counsel for the FBI in Kentucky, stated in an email that “at this time, pursuant to Department of Justice policy, the FBI will neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a referral or any such investigation."

State Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Taylor Mill, said, "It is clear from the events at the end of the Bevin administration that reform is needed to the power of a governor to pardon and commute sentences." He added that he will file a bill in the upcoming session of the Kentucky General Assembly to limit such power.

"I will be introducing a constitutional amendment in the 2020 session that will eliminate those powers for the month leading up to an election and for the time between an election and a swearing in of a new governor," McDaniel said. "If a governor wants to use the power to commute and pardon, he should be willing to stand in front of the voters and be held accountable for those actions.”

The fundraiser

After Bevin spoke to attendees at the fundraiser, Knuckles remembered the governor and the Bakers going into another room to have a private meeting, though he did not know what they talked about.

Kentucky Registry of Election Finance records show Eric and Kathryn Baker donated $4,000 to Bevin's 2015 campaign account on the day of the fundraiser, while Victoria Baker, who also lives at the same Corbin address, donated $1,000 that day. Kathryn Baker gave another $500 to Bevin’s 2019 reelection campaign in March.

Besides the aforementioned contributions, state records show the Baker family has never donated money to any other political candidate in Kentucky.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at [email protected] or 502-582-4472 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.

'Matt Bevin can rot in hell': Family of murder victim reacts to pardon of donor's relative

Ben Tobin, Andrew Wolfson and Joe Sonka, Courier JournalPublished 7:00 p.m. ET Dec. 12, 2019 | Updated 8:53 a.m. ET Jan. 9, 2020

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Using his executive powers, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin issued hundreds of pardons and commutations during his last days in office in 2019. Louisville Courier Journal

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"Matt Bevin can rot in hell," said Melinda Mills, the older sister of Donald, in a Thursday interview with The Courier Journal.

Released from prison this week, Baker served two years of a 19-year sentence for reckless homicide, robbery, impersonating a peace officer and tampering with evidence.

Who did Bevin pardon? Running list of people Kentucky's former governor set free

Bevin's former campaign manager and chief of staff have not replied to requests for comment about the pardon and fundraiser. A reporter rang the doorbell several times at Bevin's Anchorage home on Thursday morning, but no one answered the door. Family members of Mills — as well as the attorneys of the co-defendants in the crime who are still in jail — all characterized the pardon as a gross miscarriage of justice and suggested Baker's freedom was "bought" by a wealthy family.

Mills went on to suggest the Bakers' purchased the pardon from Bevin with campaign funds, saying the governor "had no business to turn him loose."

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"At his brother's house, they had a big fundraiser and raised $21,500," Mills said. "I think that's bribery to turn him loose. ... He's done crooked work and he needs to be investigated."

More: Can Matt Bevin really do that? The pardon power in Kentucky explained

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While Bevin's pardon of Baker stated that the evidence against him was weak, Mills strongly disagreed.

Melinda Mills, who works as a cook for Knox County Public Schools, said she "would love to run into Matt Bevin in public. I would probably explode on him."

She said that many people in Knox County have already expressed outrage about Baker's pardon, "especially with the money involved."

Stefan Bing, the attorney who handled Patrick Baker’s unsuccessful appeal of his conviction, declined to comment on the role of the Baker family’s fundraising in securing the pardon, or if he helped write the application for the pardon. Also: Bevin's commutations included 336 people serving sentences for drug convictions

Then-Gov. Matt Bevin with Eric Baker, right, during a 2018 fundraiser at the Baker home in Corbin, Kentucky. (Photo: Courtesy Trent Knuckles/The News Journal)

Asked about that discrepancy in views on the evidence in the case, Bing would say only, “I agree with the governor.”

Assistant public advocate Cotha Hudson, another attorney for Messer, stated in an email that she is "extremely disappointed that Bevin would pardon the one who actually shot and killed Mr. Mills."

Hudson added, "It's very clear to me that this pardon was purchased," as "my client doesn't have a wealthy family so he did not receive a pardon."

Donald Mills (Photo: Courtesy Melinda Mills)

Pardons, laws and investigations

Authorities of Kentucky's constitution say a governor cannot rescind a pardon or commutation issued by a previous governor, if all the required procedural steps were followed.

However, Bevin's pardon of Baker still has drawn calls for investigations to look into the circumstances of the pardon, particularly in relation to political donations. Former state Auditor Adam Edelen tweeted Wednesday night that "a credible accusation of selling a pardon demands the legislature and the new Attorney General fully exercise their oversight responsibility. I worked with the FBI weekly as state auditor. I guarantee this hasn’t gone unnoticed."

Spokespersons for Gov. Andy Beshear, who was sworn into office on Tuesday, did not respond to requests for comment about Bevin's pardon of Baker and calls for investigations.

"This is the kind of thing that makes people really distrust government," McGarvey said. "Let's try to salvage that."

The fundraiser

Trent Knuckles, the publisher of The News Journal in Corbin, told The Courier Journal he was at the July 26, 2018, fundraiser for Bevin at the Baker home, which he called "massive." He was invited to take photographs and cover the event for the paper. After Bevin spoke to attendees at the fundraiser, Knuckles remembered the governor and the Bakers going into another room to have a private meeting, though he did not know what they talked about.

Former Gov. Matt Bevin (left) mingles with guests at his campaign fundraiser on July 26, 2018 at the Corbin, Ky. home of Eric and Kathryn Baker. (Photo: Photo courtesy Trent Knuckles, The News Journal)

Besides the aforementioned contributions, state records show the Baker family has never donated money to any other political candidate in Kentucky.

Matt Bevin said only co-defendants implicated Dayton Jones in brutal sodomy. He was wrong

Andrew Wolfson and Joe Sonka, Louisville Courier Jan. 10, 2020

Justifying his commutation of Dayton Jones' sentence in a brutal sodomy, Gov. Matt Bevin said the only evidence implicating Jones came from co-defendants trying to get leniency for the near-fatal assault on an unconscious 15-year-old boy.

Bevin told The Courier Journal last month that he had read "hundreds of documents" from the case and that "there was nothing there except for the testimony of kids who were getting a better deal by throwing" Jones "under the bus."

Bevin insisted there was no corroborating evidence — "zero, zero" — adding that if Jones, 25, had been "even remotely involved," he wouldn’t have received the commutation.

But a Courier Journal review of the case shows that Bevin was wrong — other witnesses besides Jones' co-defendants implicated him. Indeed, Jones implicated himself.

According to court records, Jones sent a text message from his phone the morning after the 2014 assault, admitting he inserted a sex toy into the victim's anus "a little, but I was for sure not the only one. Everybody did it."

A teenager who was not prosecuted also told a Christian County sheriff’s lieutenant that he saw Jones push the object into the victim, according to his statement.

And a third teen, who was prosecuted in juvenile court for reposting a video of the crime, also described Jones as participating in the sodomy.

"The assertions by Bevin are categorically false," special prosecutor Jon Heck told The Courier Journal. "Had he bothered to reach out to me, I would have advised him of the overwhelming evidence of Jones’ guilt,” said Heck, a former assistant attorney general who handled the case. “This included testimony of neutral eyewitness and the text that Jones himself sent."

The Courier Journal also found that Bevin did not consult the Christian County Sheriff’s Office, whose detectives investigated the case. Nor did Bevin consult the victim.

Efforts by The Courier Journal to reach the victim were unsuccessful.

"Siding with the perpetrator and/or his family, without ever speaking to or considering the victim, is what makes such a pardon unconscionable," former Christian County Commonwealth’s Attorney Lynn Pryor said.

She and other attorneys in the case also pointed out that Jones pleaded guilty in 2016, without asserting his innocence.

And after a hearing last June, Circuit Judge John Atkins denied Jones’ motion to vacate his conviction on the grounds his attorney was ineffective, citing the "overwhelming evidence" against Jones.

In interviews, defense attorneys for two of Jones' co-defendants who remain in prison disputed Bevin’s assertion that there was no corroborating evidence against Jones.

"That is not true," said Ben Fletcher, counsel for Colton Cavanaugh, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his part in the assault.

"If you pleaded guilty and had a good lawyer, you should not get a pardon," Fletcher said.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers who weren't involved in the case also noted that Kentucky allows defendants to be convicted solely through the testimony of co-defendants who have cooperated with the prosecution.

"It happens all the time," said Louisville attorney Rob Eggert.

Former federal prosecutor Mike Mazzoli added: "A person with such a deal may well be biased in favor of the prosecution, but this does not automatically mean that the person is lying."

Bevin’s Dec. 9 order freed Jones from prison after he'd served three years of a 15-year sentence.

It was one of more than 650 pardons and commutations Bevin issued in the waning days of his term after he was defeated in the November election.

Neither the attorney general or sheriff’s office provided Bevin with the evidence from Dayton's case.

Instead, The Courier Journal's reporting found that Bevin appeared to rely on records and accounts submitted by Jones’ grandparents, Tony and Jackie Jones.

In an interview last week, Tony Jones said the couple sent Bevin 560 pages of documents: “We sent everything.” But Heck said that that doesn’t come close to matching the bankers' boxfuls of evidence compiled in the case.

And Tony and Jackie Jones said they were unaware of the text message in which their grandson appeared to implicate himself.

In the text exchange, according to court records, Dayton Jones asked a friend, Samual Miller, who hosted the party where the passed-out 15-year-old was sodomized, why Miller was mad at him.

"You put a dildo in K------'s a-- and he bled all over my house, and he’s hurt,” Miller texted back.

Jones responded: “What did I do? I definitely didn’t put that far enough (in) to bleed. I left somewhat early, and it had to be somebody after me.”

Miller replied: "Colton and everybody said you shoved that up his a--."

Dayton: "Yeah, ‘cause they didn’t want to admit to it. I did it a little, but I was for sure not the only one. Everybody did it."

Jones’ former lawyer, William Deatherage, said his client decided on his own to plead guilty in the face of that and other evidence, including a statement from a teenager who told a sheriff’s lieutenant that he saw "mostly Dayton" sodomizing the victim.

Deatherage testified at the June hearing that the statement was particularly concerning because "Dayton Jones had counted on (the teen) as being a favorable witness."

Another teenager who wasn’t charged also gave a sheriff’s deputy a statement saying that Jones had put the object in the victim.

Co-defendants Cavanaugh and Tyler Perry, who pleaded to first-degree assault and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, also would have testified against Jones, Heck said at the hearing.

In an interview at their home, Jackie and Tony Jones said the statements of Cavanaugh and Perry weren't credible because they admitted getting together after the crime to discuss pinning it on Jones.

Jackie Jones said one of the teens who said he saw the assault recanted his statement and the other was convicted in juvenile court and served time in a youth center. Heck confirmed that.

Heck also conceded that the teen who recanted would not have been a cooperative witness, but he said that a video of his statement against Jones would have been shown to the jury if the case had gone to trial.

Jones and his grandparents also accused the sheriff’s office and prosecution of ignoring statements from several girls at the party who said they left with Jones and hadn’t seen him or anyone else assault the 15-year-old boy.

They included the victim’s then-girlfriend, Madison Rousell. But she testified at the hearing last June that she was only at the house for about an hour, and when she left Jones was just arriving.

She said Jones was “acting kind of rude and pulled his penis out in front of us and started peeing off the front porch. Then he started saying obscenities in Spanish.” Bevin commuted Jones' sentence on Dec. 9, his last day in office.

The order didn’t list a reason for clemency, despite the Kentucky Constitution requiring it.

But after an uproar over several pardons, including one for a man whose family had raised $21,500 to retire Bevin’s campaign debt, Bevin called The Courier Journal to defend his actions.

He said Jones “was there that night at the party” but “not involved in this process.” And he called the conviction a "nice notch in the belt" for prosecutors.

But in a statement, Andy Beshear, former attorney general and now governor, called Jones’ commutation an "injustice."

"Jones admitted to being a participant in a sexual assault that has not only scarred an individual but a community," he said. “Prosecutors in this case said it was one of most disturbing sex crimes cases they had ever prosecuted."

The Dayton Jones commutation

• The case: Dayton Jones was convicted of sodomy of a helpless victim, wanton endangerment, and distributing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor for assaulting a 15-year-old boy with a sex toy.

• The commutation: Jones' 15-year sentence was commuted to time served and he was released after three years.

• Bevin's reason: No official reason was listed, but former Gov. Matt Bevin says he found no evidence implicating Jones other than from co-defendants trying to win lighter sentences for themselves. Bevin said he had read "hundreds of documents" from the case "and there was nothing there except for the testimony of kids who were getting a better deal by throwing" Jones "under the bus."

• The evidence: Evidence shows that two teens said they saw Jones sexually assault the boy. One recanted. The other was adjudicated in juvenile court. In addition, Jones sent a text from his phone admitting his participation but saying he wasn't the only one.

• Why it matters: A prosecutor who pushed Bevin to pardon Jones had accepted donations from Jones' family. The prosecutor apologized after The Courier Journal published a story about his role in securing Jones' release.

GOP prosecutor took donations from sex offender's family, then pressed Bevin for a pardon

Andrew Wolfson, Louisville Courier Journal Jan. 10, 2020

The elected Republican commonwealth’s attorney in Christian County wrote to Gov. Matt Bevin last month seeking a pardon on behalf of a prominent local couple's grandson who pleaded guilty to using a sex toy to sodomize a passed-out 15-year-old boy. In a Dec. 7 letter on his office stationery, Commonwealth’s Attorney Richard Boling said —without offering proof — that Dayton Jones, 25, was targeted by Democratic prosecutors because of a political vendetta against his grandparents, who are Republican donors.

The couple, Jackie and Tony Jones, had given a combined $3,000 in contributions to Boling's campaign the year before.

In an interview Tuesday, Boling said he hadn’t spoken with the governor or contacted anyone in his office. The Courier Journal obtained Boling's letter the next day.

The Courier Journal also obtained emails showing that Boling shared a copy of the proposed letter with Jackie Jones for her approval, asking, “Does this look OK?” before she forwarded it to Bevin’s chief of staff, Blake Brickman.

Jones and three other young men pleaded guilty for their roles in the Oct. 12, 2014, assault on the victim, who suffered a perforated bowel and had to undergo lifesaving surgery the next day. The assault was captured on video and shared on social media.

On Dec. 9, Bevin commuted Jones’ sentence to time served, freeing him from prison after he’d served three years of a 15-year sentence. Bevin gave no official explanation for the clemency, despite it being required under the Kentucky Constitution.

In an interview in December, Bevin told The Courier Journal that he commuted Jones’ sentence because there was no evidence implicating him in the crime except statements from co-defendants seeking leniency.

The Courier Journal's review has found other evidence corroborating Jones' involvement.

In an interview Thursday, Boling said he was truthful when he told The Courier Journal he hadn’t spoken to or contacted the governor because he gave the letter to Jackie Jones, who passed it on to the governor’s office.

He conceded he had no evidence to support the allegation that politics played a role in the case and should have specified in the letter that those assertions represent the beliefs of Jones' grandparents.

Since they were first revealed by The Courier Journal, Bevin's frenzy of executive orders — totaling more than 650 pardons and commutations in his final two weeks in office — have sparked public outcry, calls for federal investigations and proposed limits to future governors' end-of-term clemency powers.

The cases of Jones and three other men were handled by special prosecutors from then-Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office after Commonwealth’s Attorney Lynn Pryor was disqualified because of allegations that her daughter may have been at the party where the crimes occurred.

Boling, who had no role in prosecuting Jones' case, defeated Pryor in 2018.

In his letter to Bevin, Boling said Jackie and Tony Jones were longtime supporters of the local Democratic Party but “got to the point they could no longer condone the conduct of the party.” He said that upset Pryor and other local elected officials. He claimed that when Pryor was removed, she persuaded Beshear’s office to handle the case, rather than assigning it to a prosecutor in an adjacent county. Boling said that allowed her to "work hand in hand with Beshear to ensure that Jones was punished to get back at his grandparents."

"Dayton Jones needs your help to right a wrong," Boling wrote Bevin. "He was excessively punished for being the grandson of Tony and Jackie Jones."

Jon Heck, a former assistant attorney general who was a special prosecutor in the sodomy case, said that Boling’s allegations are “completely without merit” and that political considerations were irrelevant in the resolution of the case.

Heck said he didn’t even know the Joneses’ party affiliation until this week, when he saw Boling’s letter.

And Heck said Beshear’s only directive to him was to prosecute all the defendants vigorously because the crime was so horrendous.

Heck said it was wrong for an elected prosecutor to try to undermine a conviction and that Boling’s letter to the governor was particularly suspect, given that he had taken large contributions from Jones’ grandparents.

Crystal Staley, a spokeswoman for now-Gov. Andy Beshear, denied that the prosecution was politically motivated and said, "That an elected prosecutor … would spread conspiracy theories to justify a pardon is shocking and disappointing."

Pryor said before she was removed as prosecutor, her only goal was “to seek justice” for the victim and she had “no personal animosity toward any of the defendants or their family members, and I never considered the political affiliation of anyone involved in this case or any other case.”

The clemency order for Jones was one of 650 pardons and commutations Bevin issued after he lost his bid for a second term in November. Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a fellow Republican, has asked the FBI to investigate the orders.

Jones declined to talk to a reporter last week, but his grandparents, Jackie and Tony Jones, said in interviews that he was "overcharged" and that Bevin's order was justified.

They claim Dayton should not have been convicted of a sex offense, which required registry as a sex offender for life, since neither he nor the other defendants derived “sexual gratification” from the assault.

But sexual gratification is not required under Kentucky’s sodomy law, according to prosecutors and defense lawyers.

Jones pleaded guilty to sodomy of a victim who was physically helpless or unable to consent, wanton endangerment and distributing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor.

Without Bevin’s order, he would not have been eligible for parole until 2023 and wouldn’t have served out his sentence until 2029.

He attended Arkansas State University on a golf scholarship before he was kicked off the team when he was charged. He was raised by his grandparents after their teenage daughter gave birth to him.

Records in Jones’ pardon file show that Jackie and Tony Jones spent three years working to try to get their grandson out of prison.

In a 2017 letter that Tony Jones hand-delivered to Bevin, they noted that “we are longtime friends with former Congressman Ed Whitfield, who recommended we reach out to you.”

They also said they had been in "regular contact" with elected officials, including state Reps. Myron Dossett and Walker Thomas and state Sens. Whitney Westerfield and Stan Humphries, as well as then- Justice Secretary John Tilley, to "help us make others aware of the injustice that took place."

In the letter, the couple, who live in a $700,000, 4,800-square-foot house outside Hopkinsville, noted that Tony Jones, who owns coin laundries, warehouses and other businesses, is also vice chairman of the local airport board, while Jackie serves on the board of Hopkinsville Community College.

They told Bevin there was "nothing sexual about the crime" — even though a sex toy was used — and that it "merely involved a group of young male friends who drank alcohol, got stupid and tried to play a prank on one of their group."

Editorial: Bevin challenged us to scrutinize his pardons. We've done that and more

They also claimed Dayton was "forced" to plead guilty, even though he swore he was doing so voluntarily when he entered his plea.

They told Bevin that Dayton is “a charming young man, fun to be around, caring, smart, and athletic," although in an email to a family friend, Christian County Attorney Mike Foster, Jackie confided that her grandson was "spoiled rotten to the core, arrogant and privileged."

Lawmakers Dossett, Humphries and Thomas said in interviews that they did not lobby Bevin on Jones’ behalf, while Westerfield, Tilley and Whitfield did not respond to calls and emails.

Whitfield represented Kentucky's 1st Congressional District from 1995 until he resigned in September 2016 amid allegations that he gave special favors to his lobbyist wife.

Emails in Dayton Jones' pardon file show that Foster, the county attorney, contacted then-Attorney General Beshear in 2016 asking him to amend the charge against Jones so that he would not have to register as a sex offender if convicted.

“I made a strong plea on your behalf,” he told Jackie Jones in an email on Nov. 29, 2016. “I hope it helps.”

In an interview, Foster acknowledged calling the attorney general. He said he is friends with both grandparents and serves on the community college board with Jackie.

But he said he only passed on their request to Beshear and told him he did not endorse it.

'I made a monumental mistake': Prosecutor sorry for asking Bevin for pardon in sodomy case

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A prosecutor has apologized after The Courier Journal disclosed Thursday that he had written Gov. Matt Bevin pleading for a pardon in a life-threatening sodomy case.

"Out of emotion, I made a monumental mistake in preparing this letter, in a rushed fashion,” Christian County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling said in a news release Thursday evening.

"I would like to first and foremost apologize to the citizens of Christian County for the embarrassment that I have caused this community.”

In a Dec. 7 letter to Bevin on his office stationery, Boling said — without offering proof — that convicted sex offender Dayton Jones, 25, was targeted by Democratic prosecutors because of a political vendetta against his grandparents, who donated to Republicans.

Boling also apologized Thursday to Jones' victim, who was 15 years old and unconscious when he was sodomized with a sex toy and almost died of his injuries.

Boling’s apology didn’t satisfy Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders, who has been a harsh critic of several of Bevin’s 650 pardons and commutations in his final days in office.

“Rick Boling needs to resign,” Sanders said in a text message to The Courier Journal. “He is an embarrassment to our profession and not worthy of the title commonwealth’s attorney.”

Ray Larson, the former Fayette commonwealth's attorney, also said Boling should step down.

"RICK BOLING apparently has ZERO respect for the plight of crime victims," Larson wrote on his Facebook page. "He has no business being a prosecutor." In another post, Larson wrote: "SHAME - SHAME - SHAME ON THIS PROSECUTOR."

The Courier Journal reported how Boling wrote to Bevin on his office stationery, then passed the letter to Jones’ grandmother, Jackie Jones, for her approval. She forwarded it to Bevin’s chief of staff.

Boling said earlier this week, before the letter was disclosed, that he had not contacted the governor’s office, and he insisted later he wasn’t lying because she sent the letter, rather than him.

Bevin commuted Jones' sentence on Dec. 9, two days after Boling’s letter was dated.

The order freed Jones from prison after he’d served three years of a 15-year sentence and relieved him from having to register as a sex offender for life.

In his two-page letter, Boling, a Republican, accused Democratic prosecutors, including his predecessor and then-Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office, of targeting Jones because his grandparents gave money to Republican candidates.

In his apology, Boling said those were the views of Jones’ grandparents, not his own.

“It was my intent to advise Gov. Bevin of their beliefs and thoughts,” he said. “However, I failed to specify that in my letter, making it appear as if those were my beliefs and thoughts, and they are not. I felt sorry for a friend and wanted to try to assist them to get their beliefs and thoughts, on paper.” Boling apologized to Beshear’s office, saying, “I have the utmost respect for the Special Prosecutions Unit, which prosecuted Jones and three other defendants, and the Attorney General’s Office and now Gov. Andy Beshear.”

But Boling offered no apology to his predecessor, Democrat Lynn Pryor, whom he defeated in 2018 and attacked in the letter.

Boling, who received a combined $3,000 from Jackie and Tony Jones in his campaign, denied he pressed for the pardon to return the favor.

In a possible rebuke of Bevin, Boling said victims should be contacted before a governor issues a pardon or commutation. The Courier Journal has reported that Bevin did not do that in several of the most controversial clemency cases.

“The victims should be the first person considered before such a decision is made in any case,” Boling said.

In closing, he said he could not undo his mistake.

Dayton Jones, whom Matt Bevin pardoned, faces federal child pornography charge

Andrew Wolfson, Louisville Courier April 7, 2020

Dayton Jones appeared to be a free man in December when Gov. Matt Bevin commuted his sentence to time served for a brutal sodomy that almost killed a 15-year-old boy.

But on Tuesday, Jones was charged with a federal offense stemming from the same crime — producing child pornography, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The Courier Journal reported in January that the office of U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman was investigating whether Jones, 26, violated a federal law and could face new charges.

Jones, the grandchild of an affluent Christian County couple, was freed by Bevin after serving only three years of a 15-year term for using a sex toy to assault a boy who was passed out drunk. His clemency prompted a furor in Western Kentucky.

Jones’ attorney, Darren Wolff, said in an interview that the federal charge is vindictive and obviously in retaliation for Bevin's commutation.

Wolff also said his client is a "pawn" in an ongoing dispute between Bevin and Coleman, neither of whom like each other, he said, and who are aligned with competing factions of the state Republican Party.

But in a news release Tuesday, Coleman said, "This prosecution is about one thing and one thing only: Mr. Jones’ conduct in harming someone’s child in the Western District of Kentucky in violation of federal law."

Jones is charged with making a video during the 2014 assault that he shared with others on social media. He pleaded guilty in Christian Circuit Court in 2014 to sodomy, wanton endangerment, and distribution of material depicting the sexual performance of a minor.

The federal prosecution for the same crime does not constitute double jeopardy because the federal and state governments are considered separate “sovereigns,” according to Louisville criminal defense attorney Scott C. Cox, who practices frequently in federal court.

He said it is rare for the federal government to take a “second swing at somebody” unless prosecutors believe there was a miscarriage of justice in the state court proceedings.

A five-year statute of limitations exists for prosecuting most federal crimes, but there are exceptions, including for child sex and pornography cases.

Jones was one of four young men who pleaded guilty for their roles in the assault on the victim, who suffered a perforated bowel and had to undergo lifesaving surgery the next day.

On Dec. 9, Bevin commuted Jones’ sentence to time served, giving no official explanation for the clemency.

He later told a Courier Journal reporter that he did so because there was no corroborating evidence — "zero, zero" — implicating Jones.

But a Courier Journal review found that other witnesses besides Jones' co-defendants implicated him and that Jones implicated himself in a text message in which he admitted inserting a sex toy in the victim’s anus.

He also said, “I was for sure not the only one. Everybody did it."

If convicted, Jones faces up to 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He was taken into custody and faces a detention hearing Thursday.

Coleman, an acolyte of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has feuded with Bevin, announced in December that his office was investigating if any of the state inmates Bevin pardoned also committed federal crimes.

Coleman said in a statement that month that he was particularly concerned about the "risk to the public by those previously convicted of sex offenses, who by virtue of the state pardon, will not fall under any post-release supervision or be required to register as sex offenders."

Jones is the first person granted clemency by Bevin who has been charged federally. He was one of 670 offenders who received pardons or commutations from Bevin before he left office.

The federal case was investigated by the Christian County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the FBI, Kentucky State Police, Kentucky Office of the Attorney General and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Jones also faces charges in Oldham Circuit Court for promoting contraband while he was still in prison and for being a persistent felony offender.

He was freed on those charges on a $5,000 cash bond. Prosecutors are trying to revoke it because Jones allegedly gave a false address. The state Department of Corrections also issued a warrant for Jones' arrest for failing to register as a sex offender, but Wolff said Jones registered Monday, subject to the outcome of a lawsuit he filed last month contesting that requirement.

How Kentucky's unchecked pardon power let Matt Bevin keep victims in the dark

Andrew Wolfson, Louisville Courier Jan. 17, 2020

When Gov. Matt Bevin granted more than 650 pardons and commutations last month, he didn’t consult with crime victims, prosecutors or judges for a simple reason.

He didn’t have to.

Indeed, Kentucky gives its governor nearly unchecked power when it comes to handing out clemency — imposing the fewest restrictions of any state, a Courier Journal analysis shows.

• In 17 states, the governor must notify prosecutors before granting a pardon or commutation. But not in Kentucky.

• In 15 states, the victim must be notified. Not in Kentucky.

• A dozen states allow or require public hearings, and a dozen require the governor to consult with the state parole board. Neither is required in Kentucky.

Indeed, Kentucky law says only that the governor may ask the parole board for advice. And the Kentucky Constitution's only requirement is that the governor must state a reason for clemency and make it public.

That could be about to change.

Republican Senate President Robert Stivers said he supports not only notification for victims but creating a new pardon commission that would research proposed cases and make recommendations to the governor.

Chris Cohron, legislative director of the state association of commonwealth’s attorneys, said that at “a bare minimum” the legislature needs to ensure that the prosecutor and victim be given “ample notice and an opportunity to respond to the pardon application.”

Rob Sanders, the commonwealth’s attorney in Kenton County, where Bevin pardoned a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old girl, said: "In light of the fact we obviously can’t trust every governor to do the right thing, yes, I would support legislation requiring notice."

Gov. Andy Beshear appears likely to support reform of Kentucky’s parole laws.

Although he wouldn’t comment on specific measures, a spokesman, Sebastian Kitchen, said: "Beshear has been clear he will handle the pardon process differently. He will never issue a pardon for a violent crime without talking to victims or their families and to prosecutors." The Courier Journal reviewed clemency laws in other states after Bevin, as a lame-duck, issued more than 650 pardons and applications, including some to violent offenders.

That triggered an uproar among prosecutors, victims and their families, some of whom found out through news reports.

The Courier Journal found that other states reined in their clemency powers after governors there issued similar flurries of last-minute commutations and pardons:

• In Georgia, after the governor in his final 24 hours in 1943 pardoned 75 men, 22 of whom were convicted murderers, the state amended its constitution to reassign clemency powers to an independent board that still exists today.

• In Ohio, Gov. Richard Celeste in 1991, with four days later in his term, granted clemency to 67 offenders — including a death-row inmate who raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl. The legislature subsequently adopted a variety of reforms, including a requirement that the governor obtain a nonbinding recommendation from the parole board in advance of any decision.

• In Tennessee, after Democratic Gov. Ray Blanton pardoned or commuted prison terms for 52 inmates, 24 of whom were serving time for murder — and two top aides were convicted of selling clemency orders — the state legislature in 1979 created an independent pardon and parole board.

Tennessee's pardon-selling scandal was immortalized in a book and 1985 movie, "Marie," starring Sissy Spacek as heroic state employee Marie Ragghianti, who blew the whistle on the scheme.

Blanton was convicted of extortion and conspiracy and served 22 months in prison, but in a separate scandal, for selling a liquor license to a friend for $23,000.

In 2011, after another Tennessee governor, Phil Bredesen, on his way out the door pardoned 22 people and commuted the sentences of four others, including a man on death row for beating a woman to death while burglarizing her home, the legislature passed the "Victims of Crime Executive Clemency Notification Act."

It requires the governor to notify the attorney general of clemency applications and prosecutors to notify the victim.

"We felt it was needed, we felt it was proper, and we felt it was constitutional," former state prosecutor Michael Dunavant, now U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, said in an interview.

Stivers, the Kentucky Senate president, said he believes restriction on the governor’s pardon power would require amending the constitution.

But University of Kentucky law professor William Fortune, a constitutional scholar, said he doesn’t believe requiring the governor to notify prosecutors or victims would require a constitutional amendment because "it doesn’t strip away the governor's pardon power."

State Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican from Northern Kentucky, has introduced a bill for a constitutional amendment that would remove a governor's powerto grant pardons between an election and the inauguration of the next governor. And Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville, has already added a provision to notify victims about proposed clemency to Marsy's Law, an amendment that would add a variety of victim protections to the state constitution.

Voters approved Marsy’s Law in 2018, but it was struck down by the Kentucky Supreme Court because the entire text of the law wasn’t included on the ballot.

Criminal defense lawyers are likely to oppose any conditions or limitations on clemency.

Retired Chief Jefferson County Public Defender Dan Goyette said giving advance notice to victims or prosecutors would subject governors to political pressure, undermining "the purpose of clemency to correct injustices, especially in unpopular or controversial cases."

Clemency, which includes both pardons and sentence reductions, is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and those of every state. It is seen as vital for correcting mistakes in the courts.

Founding Father Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers that the "prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible fettered" and that without it, "justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel."

States that limit a governor's pardon powers have had difficulty enforcing them.

In Mississippi, the state constitution says no pardon shall be granted unless felons publish notice of their application for 30 days in a newspaper in the county where their crime occurred.

But in 2012, the Mississippi Supreme Court allowed 165 pardons issued by Gov. Haley Barbour to stand, even though they violated that requirement, saying the validity of pardons is solely the governor’s call.

A state-by-state comparison of clemency laws by the Restoration of Rights Project shows that states impose a variety of restrictions on their governor’s pardon power that don't exist in Kentucky.

• In six states, for example, applications are decided by an independent board.

• In eight states, the governor must get consent from the parole board.

• And in four states, including Indiana, the governor must notify the parole board, though its recommendations are not binding.

Kentucky is one of 15 states in which the governor may consult with the parole board but doesn't have to. The\other 14 states, however, impose additional obligations on the applicant or the governor, including notifying victims, prosecutors or the sentencing judge, or providing the legislature with the reasons for clemency orders.

In Maryland, the governor must publish notices of proposed clemency in the newspaper. In North Dakota, the applicant must demonstrate "compelling need," and in Vermont, the applicant must prove he or she has been rehabilitated.

Other states mandate consent from high-level officials or legislative bodies.

In Rhode Island, for example, the governor must get the "advice and consent" of the state Senate. In Florida, the governor must get two cabinet secretaries to concur. In Minnesota, a board composed of the governor, attorney general and chief justice of the state Supreme Court must vote unanimously for clemency.

And in California, repeat offenders must be recommended for pardons or commutations by a majority of state Supreme Court justices.

Law professor Rachel Barkow, a clemency expert and director of New York University’s Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, said ideally governors should be required to consult with a well- informed board that can offer "helpful analysis" — but the governor should be allowed to make the final call.

She cited as a model Arkansas, where board members must have at least a bachelor’s degree and five years' experience in fields that include law enforcement, psychology, psychiatry, social work and other related areas.

Daniel Kobil, another clemency expert who is a professor at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, said most clemency orders governors issue are valid and justified.

But Kobil, who has followed the news of Bevin’s clemency orders, including one he issued for a child rapist on the medically discredited ground that the victim’s hymen was intact, added, "The problem is when a governor has the hubris to think he can decide whether a little girl has been raped or not."