Arkansas Governor Beebe Will Pardon Son

Mike Beebe the outgoing governor of Arkansas announced on Wednesday that he would pardon the felony conviction for marijuana against his son. He argued that he deserved a second change just like hundreds of nonviolent offenders.

Beebe will leave office this coming January because of term limits. He will be succeeded by Asa Hutchinson the Republican Governor-elect.

According to one report, Beebe has issued over 700 pardons since he first took office in 2007.

A large number of the pardons have been first time, young, drug offenders because he has the opinion that if you make one mistake, especially one that is nonviolent and you get your life straightened out, then you deserve to be given another chance.

The plan for Beebe to pardon his son became known after a television station in Little Rock reported on the plan.

The governor said he thought his son had matured since his conviction in 2003. In June, his son applied to receive a pardon.

Beebe told reporters that he would have pardoned his soon much sooner but he did not ask for it until know. Beebe said his son had been embarrassed, was still embarrassed, as was his mother.

Beebe said many families go through this sort of thing and it is tough at the time, but hopefully kids are able to learn from it.

The Parole Board from the state recommended that Kyle Beebe be pardoned in October. He received a sentence of three years of probation, fines of $1,150 and a suspended driver’s license for six months.

When his son was convicted in 2003, Beebe was the attorney general of Arkansas.

Beebe announced the pardon of his son, the same day he delayed the pardon of Michael Jackson a 34-year friend of son Kyle since childhood and a former player on a peewee football team that Beebe coached.

In 2007, Jackson was arrested in a sting on the Internet for attempting to meet with a police officer who had posed as a girl who was jut 14.

He served a prison sentence of two years. On Tuesday, the governor said he received an affidavit of new unrelated child custody accusations against Jackson and nothing could be done about a pardon until those accusations are confirmed or refuted.