Republican Governor Releases Murderer Sentenced to Life

And Haley Barbour is supposed to be a conservative, too. I guess there goes the law and order issue for the Republicans in the Fall.

The last thing a governor wants - and especially a law-and-order Republican governor - is a controversy over a pardon or commutation of sentence, especially when it involves someone convicted of a brutal murder. But that's exactly what Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour got this week.

Barbour's decision to let out the man convicted of the 1989 killing of Adrienne Klasky after serving 19 years of a life sentence has triggered rage among those who knew her and who remember the brutal crime.

Barbour earlier this month suspended the life sentence of Michael Graham, who had been working as a trusty in the Governor's Mansion. Much like a parole, Graham is restricted in where he can live and has to report to monthly meetings with corrections officials.

Graham, Klasky's ex-husband, was convicted of her murder. Witnesses said Graham stalked Klasky for three years before pulling up next to her at a Pascagoula intersection and shooting her in the head as she waited for a light to change.