Willie Horton
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Willie Horton is a convicted felon who was the subject of a controversial political advertisement during the 1988 U.S. Presidential race.
Horton was imprisoned at the Concord Correctional Facility in Massachusetts for murder. On June 6, 1986, he was released as part of a weekend furlough program but did not return.
On April 3, 1987 in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Horton assaulted local resident Clifford Barnes and raped his fiancee. He then stole Barnes' car, but was later captured by police after a chase. That autumn in Maryland, Horton was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years.
Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts at the time, and while he did not start the furlough program, he had supported it as a method of rehabilitation. The State inmate furlough program was actually signed into law by Governor Francis Sargent in 1972. However, in 1976, Governor Dukakis vetoed a bill that would ban furloughs for first-degree murderers. The practice was not outlawed until April 28, 1988.
The case of Willie Horton was discussed as a political issue during the 1988 Democratic presidential primary by Senator Al Gore. After Dukakis won the Democratic Party nomination, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush's campaign released ads criticizing the furlough program to portray Dukakis as soft and ineffective on crime, but these ads didn't mention Horton specifically. Then a political action committee (PAC) named "National Security" produced a television commercial titled "Weekend Passes" which was much more explosive. The ad not only told the Horton story but also featured his mug shot, which critics of Bush saw as a tactic to divide white and black voters (Horton is a black man). National Security member Larry McCarthy called the image "every suburban mother's greatest fear."
Willie Horton is also the name of a baseball player who played for the Detroit Tigers.