Here’s the list of all of the nearly 200 people former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour pardoned in his eight-year term (2004-2012), with each crime that each person committed.
Here’s what is striking about this list:
- One of the people that Haley Barbour pardoned: the brother of former Atlanta Falcons/Green Bay Packers/New York Jets/Minnesota Vikings NFL player Brett Favre, Scott Favre: Earnest Scott Favre had his record cleared in the 1996 death of his best friend, Mark Haverty. Favre had driven in front of a train in Pass Christian while drunk, pleaded guilty in 1997, and was sentenced to a year of house arrest followed by two years’ probation.
- Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has called the pardons that Barbour signed on his last day in office are unconstitutional, citing a law in Mississippi that requires any inmates seeking a pardon from a governor to post their intentions in a newspaper for 30 days in the place they were convicted. Due to the laser-fast actions of Barbour, that most definitely did not happen. Also, the families of each and every victim of the crimes perpetuated by the perpetrator have to be notified per Mississippi law before a pardon is signed. Therefore, each and every pardon that occurred on Barbour’s last day in office should be declared null and void and the pardons reversed.
- Barbour issued a statement defending the massive amount of pardons:
Barbour’s office has said only a minority of those convicts who received clemency were incarcerated at the time of the move, with 90 percent of them no longer in prison when the pardons were granted.
Barbour had said that the pardons were intended to allow the inmates “to find gainful employment or acquire professional licenses as well as hunt and vote,” and that his decisions were typically based on the recommendation of the Parole Board.
As one would expect, the families of the victims of crimes committed by the newly pardoned were livid. Frankly, I would be livid and ballistic.
I sincerely hope that Haley Barbour never again has a government position. He managed to piss more people off in one day than throughout his entire eight-year-term. And rightfully so!


