Former Arkansas governor and one-time presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee appeared on The O’Reilly Factor tonight and addressed criticism of granting clemency to cop-killing suspect Maurice Clemmons while he was governor.

There’s a good account over on Strange Bedfellows. Here are highlights:

Host Bill O’Reilly said “this is a bad hombre, and you let him out, why?”

Huckabee: “If I could’ve known nine years ago that this guy was capable of something of this nature, obviously I would’ve never granted the commutation. It’s sickening”

Huckabee… said corrections officials recommended that Clemmons sentence be commuted to 47 years.

“That would give him parole eligibility. That was the commutation. I’m responsible for that, and it’s not something I’m happy about at this particular moment.”

The former governor said the judge in the Clemmons case and the parole board recommended that the sentence be reduced, “because at the age of 16, the sentence he got for the crimes he committed back in 1989 was excessive.”