Jackson Free Press

JACKSON-Rickey Cole, Executive Director of the Mississippi Democratic Party, praised Democrats in the legislature for their leadership in working to reform Mississippi's pardon process.Cole said, "Long before this media circus began, Democrats in the Mississippi House and Senate have been working to protect Mississippi families and improve our system of justice. This will mark the fourth straight year that Democrats have worked to bring openness and fairness to the pardon process. Republicans have killed these bills in the past. I hope they're finally ready to join together in a bipartisan consensus to do what is right and what the people demand."
Cole expressed his concern that this might not be the case based on remarks by high-ranking Republican officials in the aftermath of Barbour's record breaking number of pardon decisions.

"The outgoing governor has the right to do what he sees and what he thinks is good and fair," Brown said. "... And he knows more about the details than I do."
-Republican Senate Pro Tempore Terry Brown (Clarion Ledger, 1/8/12)

"How does that affect his legacy here? I don't think it does. Of those 200, a lot of them are people that were convicted on selling an ounce of marijuana 20 years ago. They've served their sentence."
--Hinds County Republican Party Chairman Pete Perry (WAPT, 1/11/12)

Cole said, "I'm sorry to hear that the second most powerful Republican in the Senate and the Republican Party Chairman in the state's largest county think that Governor Barbour's pardon decisions were 'good and fair.' Those aren't the words of a party that has learned its lesson."