Mississippi Democrats and a victim’s relatives are criticizing outgoing Republican Gov. Haley Barbour for pardoning a convicted murderer on Barbour’s final weekend in office.
WLBT-TV reports (http://bit.ly/At42AO) that Barbour pardoned 40-year-old David Gatlin, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing his estranged wife, Tammy Ellis Gatlin, in 1993 and wounding a man.
Online state records show Gatlin has been serving as a trustee inmate at the governor’s mansion.
The victim’s sister, Tiffany Ellis Brewer, says Gatlin “spent less time in jail than my little sister got to live.’’
