Mississippi pardons benefited whites by big margin

MISSISSIPPI (Reuters): Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's grants of commutations or pardons to more than 200 prisoners, all but eight in his final days in office, disproportionately benefited white offenders among a predominantly black prison population, a Reuters analysis found.

Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman, stirred an uproar in Mississippi last week by the surprise grants of clemency, which numbered far more than any of his recent predecessors' in a state where law and order are hallmarks of political rhetoric.