After St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner had sent police to confiscate the guns that Michael and Patricia McCloskey used in their much-photographed defense of their St. Louis home, Missouri Governor Mike Parson was interviewed by a local radio host about the situation. He issued a relatively vague statement declaring that he’d consider pardoning the McCloskeys if and when they were charged and convicted.
Cox: Just hypothetically, if Kim Gardner is to try to prosecute one of these two people and tries to take them into a jury trial and gets them convicted, do you as governor have the power to pardon or commute something like that?
Parson: Oh, by all means I would and … I think that’s exactly what would happen. You know, right now, you know, that’s exactly what I feel. You don’t know until you hear all the facts and all that, but right now, if this is all about going after them because they did a lawful act, yeah, if that scenario ever happened, I don’t think they’re gonna spend any time in jail.
Now that a grand jury has indicted the two attorneys on a pair of charges resulting from their home defense, Parson has come out with a more categorical statement.
From The Hill:
Parson said at a news conference on Wednesday that he “most certainly would” issue a pardon for the couple should they be convicted on counts of exhibiting a weapon and tampering with evidence brought against them over the June incident, according to The Associated Press.
“We’ll let it play out and see how this all comes out in the courts, but I stand by what I said,” Parsons continued.
The McCloskeys face more jeopardy than jail time. If the case goes to trial and they’re convicted, a pardon wouldn’t keep them from potentially being disbarred. Watch this space.