Delmar Partin delivered eight blows to the head of Betty Carnes with a metal pipe, killing the mother of three. He then severed her head, put her torso in a barrel, and placed her head on her own lap. This Monday, outgoing Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin pardoned Partin and commuted his sentence after he was convicted of killing her at the factory where they both worked in Barbourville in 1994.
According to Bevin, potential DNA evidence in Partin's case had not been tested, the Lexington Herald Leader reports.
“Given the inability or unwillingness of the state to use existing DNA evidence to either affirm or disprove this conviction, I hearby pardon Mr. Partin for this crime and encourage the state to make every effort to bring final justice to the victim and her family,” Bevin wrote.
But according to the prosecutor in the case, Tom Handy, Bevin's move shows the "arrogance of one who has a God-like image of himself" and a "lack of concern for anybody else."
Partin wasn't the only controversial pardon handed out by Bevin in his final days in office. As the Herald Leader points out, Charles Doug Phelps, who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and tampering with a witness, also got a pardon from Bevin who called the conviction “long on duration, long on accusation, long on drama and short on evidence" -- despite the fact that investigators found clear examples of child pornography on Phelps' phone.
“This is a travesty of our justice system,” attorney Steele told the Herald Leader. “When you have law enforcement and prosecutors and families who sludge through this process.... when they do get justice and he turns around and does something like this? It’s a travesty.”
