Sound Politics: Paperwork Mixup May Have Misidentified Clemmons

December 14, 2009

Paperwork Mixup May Have Misidentified Clemmons

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has detailed how cop killer Maurice Clemmons may have been freed due to a paperwork mixup. Clemmons' arrest warrant lists a man named Terry Gene Hamilton as Clemmons' alias, possibly because they shared, on the documents, the same state identification number (SID). A criminal history record for Hamilton likewise lists Clemmons as an alias, using Clemmons' Department of Corrections identification number (DOC), though listing Hamilton's DOC separately under custody history. But Hamilton is white, 20 years older, and apparently has only an Idaho burglary on his record.

The Seattle Times has done some good writing on the history of Clemmons' bail, and this mixup might not have contributed, but it certainly doesn't help the state's claims that they did everything right, especially with the Department of Corrections looking to "safely" release more offenders in the coming months, when they apparently can't reliably identify those offenders.

Posted by pudge at December 14, 2009 09:37 AM | Email This

Comments

1. So many governmental agencies really "screwed the pooch" when it came to Clemmons.

Posted by: FurryOldGuyJeans on December 14, 2009 05:03 PM

2. Doesn't see like many are interest in this topic...and justifiably so. Let's just be glad he got his and this is over (at minimum expense to the public).

Posted by: Duffman on December 14, 2009 06:04 PM

3. Agreed - glad he is gone off the face of the earth. Don't really want to hear the excuses about how, just want to see something like this prevented from happening again. Today in this state, accountable is much easier said than done.

Posted by: KDS on December 14, 2009 07:45 PM

4. I, for one, was sick the way Washington state officials wanted Arkansas and Huckabee to take the blame after this animal was in OUR system for 5 yrs, facing child rape, and assault of an officer, among other things,and he still was let go....even with the advice of two psychologists who said Clemmons was dangerous....

Posted by: lee on December 14, 2009 09:12 PM

5. Clemmons succeeded in becoming a cop-killer.

William Ayers attempted to be a cop-killer but failed.

Those of Clemmons'relatives and friends who assisted him are rightly and widely despised.

What does that make Barry Obama who was a colleague, neighbor and friend to William Ayers?
Apparently, the fact that Ayers was an attempted cop-killer wasn't an obstacle for Barry Obama pursuing a relationship with him.

Posted by: Attila on December 15, 2009 10:17 AM

6. I work for a local LEA doing fingerprint comparisons. We get this alias "name game" all the time. You should demand that all DOC releases be confirmed prior to release so that the correct SID can be linked to the correct individual.

Fingerprints tie charges to SID numbers and therefore are the only reliable way to keep RAP sheets associated with the rightful purp.

Write your state Rep or push an initiative. Another good one would be to notify ICE whenever an arrestee is found to be an illegal and have a felony, verified by fingerprints. RAP sheets list citizenship . The livescan fingerprint machines will send back confirmation of identity usually pretty quickly, 20 min if not less.

Posted by: whorl e bird on December 16, 2009 04:32 AM

7. I work for a local LEA doing fingerprint comparisons. We get this alias "name game" all the time. You should demand that all DOC releases be confirmed prior to release so that the correct SID can be linked to the correct individual.

Fingerprints tie charges to SID numbers and therefore are the only reliable way to keep RAP sheets associated with the rightful purp.

Posted by: whorl e bird on December 16, 2009 04:33 AM

8. being a friend and neighbor isn't a crime. NOr is being a colleague on a board. It's not the same thing as transporting someone to a hit, or hiding them afterward, both morally and in the law. If you want to make being a friend and neighbor of a criminal a crime, you're going to need to change the law in a very big way. One result will be for corporate swindlers and frauds to bring down the whole country club membership they associate with, and maybe that is not such a bad idea! Or, we could apply this to defense contractors who are guilty of fraud on the US government....by putting the senators who take their donations in jail, too.

Because they are friends and colleagues, you see.

OR take the 9-11 terrorists. We could expand the notion of friend and colleague very logically to include all moslems, andput all moslems in jail, too. For palling around with KSM and his ilk.

Then after we have half of America in jail and a billion moslems in jail, I am sure we will feel very safe. However, the costs of all those pensions for the guards will mean tax rates of 90%, so there is a price to security, if you know what I mean.

Posted by: antiAttila on December 16, 2009 08:04 AM

9. Torturer: being a friend and neighbor isn't a crime

No one implied it is.

Attila talked about despising people who choose to be a friend to people who commit heinous acts. He did not talk about criminalizing the act.

Weak effort, Torturer.

Posted by: pudge on December 16, 2009 08:28 AM