The last-minute fit of compassion from Mr Barbour, a Republican who toyed with running for president this year, has Mississippi up in arms. Victims and their relatives complain that blind justice has been supplanted by caprice. The state's attorney-general, a Democrat, points out that not all the beneficiaries seem to have fulfilled the constitution's requirement that they provide 30 days' notice of their intention to seek a pardon in a local newspaper. He has persuaded a judge to prevent any more of them being released from prison (five already have been) while he seeks to have their pardons overturned. Members of the state legislature, meanwhile, have introduced a bill to curb the governor's powers of clemency.
In his defence, Mr Barbour has pointed out that he was simply following the recommendation of Mississippi's parole board in the vast majority of cases. What is more, only 26 of those pardoned were still in prison. The rest had completed their sentences, in some instances years before,