Duggar Supporter Mike Huckabee Also Supported Early Parole Of Rapist Who Murdered After Release

Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee posted on his Facebook in support of TLC star Josh Duggar, who has admitted to molesting underage girls, including four of his sisters, back in 2006. While Huckabee is suffering a huge backlash over his comments now, this isn’t the first time the Republican presidential candidate has faced accusations of supporting sexual offenders.

As reported by the Huffington Post back in 2008, while Huckabee was Arkansas governor in 1999, he played the key role in the early parole of a violent rapist, with devastating consequences. Huckabee claimed he had no way of knowing that Wayne Dumond would proceed to rape and murder at least one more woman after his release, and was set to be tried for another murder before his death in prison.

However, in 2008, the Huffington Post obtained and published the letters from victims sent to Huckabee before Dumond’s early parole, pleading with the governor that if Dumond was released, they feared he would make sure no one would be able to testify against him the next time. Huckabee denied the existence of the letters and maintained he had no culpability for his role in releasing a violent offender who had allegedly raped one of his victims at knifepoint while her 3-year-old was sleeping next to her.

The former governor maintained back in 2008 that any letters were irrelevant because the decision to release Dumond was the responsibility of the parole board, and he denied he influenced their decision for political reasons. But according to the Huffington Post, Governor Huckabee was feeling the heat from conservatives to pardon Dumond, claiming he was only convicted because one of his victims was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton and the daughter of one of Clinton’s major campaign contributors. Among those conservatives putting pressure on Huckabee was Baptist minister and radio host Jay Cole, who also is a close friend of the Huckabees.

Dumond raped 17-year-old Ashley Stevens in 1984 and was convicted in 1985 when he was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. In 1992, Clinton’s successor as governor, Jim Guy Tucker, reduced the sentence to 39.5 years. Then, when Huckabee became governor in 1996, he quickly announced he was going to commute Dumond’s sentence to time served, creating a public outcry. The parole board beat him to it, however.

Four parole board members said they were pressured by Huckabee to parole the convicted rapist, but Huckabee countered with the claim they were lying. After his parole, Dumond raped and suffocated Carol Sue Shields, 39, of Smithville, Missouri, earning him another life sentence. When he died in prison in 2005, he was facing capital murder charges for another alleged murder committed the day before his arrest for killing Shields. His second alleged victim, after Huckabee pushed for his early release, was 23-year-old Sara Andrasek, who was pregnant with her first child with her husband.

As reported by the Huffington Post, Ashley Stevens went public with her story and spoke out in 2008 about the unjust release of her attacker.

“This isn’t and was never about politics. This is about a rapist. This is about a murderer… I might never forget Dumond’s face, but there are other women [for whom] Dumond’s face was the last thing they ever saw on this earth… I would hope that Huckabee would remember the faces of his victims.”

Now Huckabee is publicly supporting admitted child molester Josh Duggar. Can his presidential campaign survive yet another scandal where Huckabee supports a sexual offender, or the fact his support of Duggar has dredged up this past public relations fiasco?