Pressed by a decorated veteran who had his felony conviction pardoned four years ago, lawmakers agreed Tuesday to begin a study into whether a pardoned felon should be disqualified from working in law enforcement.
On Tuesday, members of the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee approved, with no objections, starting a study concerning "the qualifications required of and disqualifications prohibiting a person" from being a sworn officer in Arkansas.
The study's sponsor, Rep. Les Eaves, R-Searcy, appeared at the meeting with a former Marine and retired Army National Guardsman, Jerry Clark, who, upon retiring from military service became a part-time police officer in Kensett.
But a few months into his employment, it was discovered his conviction for a felony theft in 1991 disqualified him from being a certified law enforcement officer, even though Clark was pardoned by then-Gov. Mike Beebe in 2011.
"I'm not denying I made a mistake in my youth," Clark said. "I'm not trying to open up the door for anyone to be a police officer who has a felony ... but if I can patrol the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan, how come I can't patrol [in Arkansas]?"
State law bars any sworn officer from having a felony conviction.
During Tuesday's committee meeting, the head of the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, Jami Cook, said a handful of other states allow police officers to serve with felonies on their records so long as they were pardoned.
The idea could pose challenges once an officer with such a background takes the stand during a trial, she said, because a felony record, pardoned or not, could pose credibility issues that defense attorneys can exploit.
"Would they be impeachable witnesses?" Cook asked. "If they are impeachable witnesses, I don't know if they can testify."
Metro on 10/07/2015