Man pardoned by ex-Miss. Gov. Barbour involved in fatal gunfight ("quickly escalated ")

[underpants]

Source: Fox News

A man involved in a deadly shooting at a barbecue Thursday night in Mississippi was one of nearly 200 inmates pardoned by former Gov. Haley Barbour one year ago.

Calhoun County Sheriff Greg Pollan told FoxNews.com an argument quickly escalated into a fatal gunfight between Wayne Therman Harris and Chris McGonagill in Calhoun City, Miss. The shooting took place just outside McGonagill’s home, where he, Harris, and three other men were having a barbecue before things got heated between the two friends.

Barbour’s controversial decision to issue 198 pardons in his final days as governor drew national media attention last January. The state’s Attorney General Jim Hood challenged the legality of the pardons to the state’s Supreme Court, but eventually nearly all of the pardons were ruled to be legal.

"I pray no person becomes a victim of any of these pardoned criminals," Hood said after the court’s decision.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/11/man-pardoned-by-ex-miss-gov-barbour-involved-in-fatal-gunfight/

[Tempest]

1. Harris was in prison for selling pot

Not fair to put this in Barbour's lap.

[gateley]

3. +1 If he hadn't been pardoned for a pot charge, we would have been pissed.

[SoapBox]

4. Buuuuuuuuuut...

would he still have been in jail? If Barbour had NOT let him out?

Bottom line...he shot and killed a guy...and SEVEN time? Guess he wasn't out to just wing him...hopefully now he will go back to jail for murder.

"Harris, who received a full pardon from Barbour for the sale of marijuana, was shot twice in the leg. McGonagill was shot seven times and died during surgery at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford, around 12:30 a.m. Friday morning."

[Tempest]

5. Do you know who started it?

"and SEVEN time"

If it were the case where he was the one shot at first and it was me, I would have made it an even dozen.

[Comrade Grumpy]

13. It says he was pardoned, which I think means he has done his time.

It may be a loose usage by the local Fox affiliate, but pardons refer to after the fact expungements of the recod and commutations refer to prisoners who are actually freed early.

[RudynJack]

22. Huh?

That's not correct.

[Comrade Grumpy]

40. Yes, it is correct. See post #37 below.

[RudynJack]

41. Yes, he had done his time...

but that's not a requirement for a pardon. See Ford/Nixon.

[gopiscrap]

27. Everything is fair to dump on Republican

Fuck all GOP people we need to use everything we can if it causes the gop embarrassment even if it's not fair tough fuckinhg shit....this is politics!!!

[Tempest]

29. Politics should not be a contact sport

And blaming Barbour is unfair.

[olddad56]

6. The question I have is this...

If the guy had not been imprisoned, for selling pot, would he have been a person who would have killed someone. Going to prison is a traumatic event for a lot of people. They are often not the same when they get out. I'm just wondering.

[Kolesar]

20. ^Read this folks...eom

[Tempest]

30. Doubtful

That usually happens when the person goes in with violent tendencies.

Pot inmates do easy time.

[MichaelHarris]

7. BBQ can be unruly

and you never know when you'll have to defend yourself from it.

[Ken Burch]

9. Is Mississippi BBQ sauce known for causing homicides?

Not sure whether tomato-based, vinegar, or mustard-based would be more dangerous for that.

[DemoTex]

10. Usually, it ain't the BBQ sauce that makes 'em mad ..

It's the EtOH, or, in the words of the late Sen. John Tower - D-TX: "beverage alcohol."

[Ken Burch]

14. OK...although, without realizing it, you accidentally did a "Fox News party shift" there

Did you MEAN to write "John Tower- D-Tex"?

[DemoTex]

35. OMG! My bad!

The late John Tower (R-TX) was, of course, the first Republican US Senator from Texas since Reconstruction.

[Ken Burch]

36. It's all good.

Tower actually won LBJ's old Senate seat after Johnson got a job with some folks from Massachusetts.

[MichaelHarris]

15. It's that

high fructose sauce gang that will kill ya

[Ken Burch]

18. Watch your back when the Corn Syrup Boys are in town.

Things are gonna get sticky!

[Ken Burch]

8. It's Haley's "Willie Horton"!

Last edited Sat Jan 12, 2013, 04:39 AM - Edit history (1)

Might as well do unto him with it as they did unto Dukakis.

[gopiscrap]

28. Fully agreed!!!

[exboyfil]

11. What is a .20 mm rifle or a .9 mm pistol?

Awful small calibers.

[Historic NY]

24. 22cal. rifle

McGonagill was carrying a 9mm pistol and shot Harris twice.

Harris used a .22 rifle he got out of his truck, which was parked nearby, and hit McGonagill multiple times.

“At this point we know at least 13 total shots were fired,” Pollan said. “We cannot confirm who fired first

http://www.calhouncountyjournal.com/calhoun-city-man-dies-after-thursday-shooting-another-hospitalized/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=calhoun-city-man-dies-after-thursday-shooting-another-hospitalized

[UTUSN]

12. Kathy CROWLEY would abandon all her husband and 5 sons for HALEY BARBOUR!1 n/t

[4bucksagallon]

16. The Press really needs to get up to speed on guns and cartridges.

From the source, "The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department is still investigating the case and no charges have been filed at this time. Officers are checking to see if the two men had licenses for the weapons involved, a .20 mm rifle and .9 mm pistol."

A .20 or .2 mm and a .9mm pistol???? Lets do the math, .2 mm = +/- about .008"............. .9 mm about .036", either two of the worlds smallest weapons or the writer needs help. As of now I am confused what the .20 mm gun was, it probably was the rifle, and my guess would be a .17 caliber or what we call a varmint weapon. I did a search for a .2 mm gun, I couldn't find anything that made sense. It couldn't be a 20 mm, now that would be ridiculous, about .8" or more than 1.5 times as big as a .50 caliber MG.

[okaawhatever]

23. It said the report was from someone in the Juior Reporter program. Child Labor GOP style n/t

[24601]

32. The man who died, McGonagill, fired a 9mm handgun. Harris fired a .22 cal rifle.

http://www.calhouncountyjournal.com/calhoun-city-man-dies-after-thursday-shooting-another-hospitalized/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=calhoun-city-man-dies-after-thursday-shooting-another-hospitalized

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

17. Meanwhile, Barbour refuses to grant a pardon to 'them Duke Boys"

[harmonicon]

19. Well, thank God he was pardoned and that he had a killing device with him.

He's just one of the many "good guys with guns" that the NRA have been telling us about. That Barbour is clearly a brilliant man, chock-full of insight.

[okaawhatever]

21. No, that's the problem . All the uber patriot types will say this is a perfect example of how regula

tions wouldn't have made a difference. I wonder if the guy who died had kids. Fox isn't too worried w/that.

[24601]

33. No charges have been fired yet. It may be that the man with the 9mm handgun fired first and Harris'

ability to retrieve his .22cal rifle from his truck saved his life. It may be that Harris planned the killing - and that's why they investigate.

[harmonicon]

34. Isn't that what I said?

Good that this guy had a killing device. It did its job well.

[24601]

38. Nor really - you called him a "good guy" and I said that no determination on him was yet made. If

it turns out he planned the killings, he wasn't so good. If he was a victim and his rifle saved his life, he may turn out to be the good guy.

Good gun or bad gun? Wouldn't a .22 cal at close range usually be out-matched by a 9 mm (.38 cal). Why two 9mm wounds - was he just "done", did the gun jam or was it the return fire?

Until the police complete the investigation, it's all speculation.

[harmonicon]

39. Hold on a second...

are you telling me that when two people have guns, we can't before or at the point of sale determine who is a good guy and who is a bad guy? Fuck. I think maybe we didn't think this whole thing through enough.

[24601]

42. Have you seen anything about how either man acquired their guns, other than one retrieved it (the

.22 rifle) from his truck. At this point, we don't know if they purchased them, stole them, received them as a gift or even manufactured them. We don't know if they were owned by them or borrowed from someone else.

What's the problem with waiting for the investigation?

[harmonicon]

44. Guns can be stolen? That sounds pretty dangerous. (nt)

[24601]

45. You may be able to determine who can legally purchase the gun but good and bad are subjective

judgments. Take Al Gore for example - likely accepted on DU as a generally a good guy - until the day he sold out to the oil producers. Good guy or bad guy?

[harmonicon]

46. Good guy.

Sell out to oil producers, my ass. He owned part of a cable company that was sold to another cable company though. Oh, the horror.

[jpak]

25. This is why felons should not be allowed to possess guns

Gun Nut Lackey Barbour should know this.

Dumbass

yup

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

26. A convicted drug dealer did something violent?

Fuck... Really?

Oh wait... it was a marijuana dealer? Well surely then this nobel hippie was defending himself against Fascists!

[Tempest]

31. How do you know he was a dealer?

A friend of mine did time for selling one ounce. He wasn't a dealer, he thought he was doing a favor for a friend of a friend.

[Enrique]

37. he was released in 2002

I was reading this as if Barbour's pardon had let him out, in fact he had already been out for 10 years.

Harris had served 14 months and was released in March 2002, according to Mississippi Department of Corrections spokeswoman Tara Booth.

He was legally able to carry a hunting rifle since Dec. 21, 2007, when he received a Calhoun County Circuit Court certificate of rehabilitation, according to Sinatra Cruthids of the Calhoun County Circuit Court.

It wasn’t until Barbour’s pardon that Harris had the right to bear all arms.

[24601]

43. So he could legally have his rifle before Barbour pardoned him? Well, let's move on then - if we

can's blame Barbour, there's no story here.