Without walking back anything written here, I wanted to just add a couple of more things about the situation in Washington State. First, former governor Mike Huckabee was on the O'Reilly Factor last night, attempting to defend is commutation of Maurice Clemmons. It is no consolation, but he is tough guy to scapegoat in all of this, simply because he wasn't even close to the last "check" on the situation. But here is the video:

Now, when comparing the reporting of two different media outlets, I tend to side with the local one. With that said, here is the Seattle Times' timeline of Clemmons, stating that it was actually $190,000 that bailed him out on Nov. 23rd. And the first time he was bailed out, for $40,000, he didn't even have to see a judge. So, if this ultimately is fact, O'Reilly's attacks on Washington state judges, as his attacks often are, are ridiculous.

It was this section of the Times article that really caught my attention:

"Arkansas is releasing its hold on the offender and will not extradite at this time," the letter said. "The subject has pending charges in the state of Washington and appropriate action will be taken once the charges have been adjudicated."

Arkansas rescinded its warrant. Had Arkansas not done so, Clemmons would have been held without bail on the alleged parole violation.

Stephen Penner, a deputy prosecuting attorney in Pierce County, said he sees Arkansas' decision to leave Clemmons to Washington this way: "There's a built-in incentive to not following through. In a way, the more violent they are, the less you want them in your community."

Lindquist, Pierce County's chief prosecutor, was asked Monday if he believes Arkansas dumped Clemmons on Washington.

Only Arkansas can answer that question, Lindquist said, but he added: "You could draw that inference."

At this point, most of this background information is a moot point, since Clemmons was shot and killed by police early this morning. However, if the justice system does not improve in many ways from this, it will have failed -- and that is regardless even of his current crime. Clearly he should not have been out of prison.