Willie Horton

William R. Horton (born August 12, 1951), commonly referred to as "Willie Horton", is an American convicted murderer who was the subject of a major issue in the 1988 presidential election.

Horton had committed violent crimes while on furlough from prison, where he was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murder.

Released for a weekend as the beneficiary of a Massachusetts furlough program, he failed to return, and was later recaptured and convicted of committing assault, armed robbery, and rape in Maryland, where he remains incarcerated.

The state inmate furlough program, originally signed into law by Republican governor Francis Sargent in 1972, excluded convicted first-degree murderers.

However, in 1973, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that this right extended to first-degree murderers because the law specifically did not exclude them.

The Massachusetts legislature quickly passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates.

On October 26, 1974, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Horton and two accomplices robbed Joseph Fournier, a 17-year-old gas station attendant, and then fatally stabbed Fournier 19 times after he had cooperated by handing over all of the money in the cash register.

His body was stuffed in a trash can, so his feet were jammed up against his chin.

Fournier died from blood loss.

Horton was convicted of murder, sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and incarcerated at the Northeastern Correctional Center in Massachusetts.

However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill, arguing it would "cut the heart out of efforts at inmate rehabilitation."

On June 6, 1986, Horton was released as part of a weekend furlough program but did not return.

On April 3, 1987, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Horton twice raped a woman after pistol-whipping, stabbing, binding, and gagging her fiancé.

He then stole the car belonging to the man he had assaulted.

He was later shot by Corporal Paul J. Lopez of the Prince George's County Police Department and captured by Corporal Yusuf A. Muhammad of the same department after a pursuit.

On October 20, Horton was sentenced in Maryland to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years.

The sentencing judge, Vincent J. Femia, refused to return Horton to Massachusetts, saying, "I'm not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released. This man should never draw a breath of free air again."

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts at the time of Horton's release.

While he did not start the furlough program, he had supported it as a method of criminal rehabilitation.

During the 1988 presidential election, US Vice President and Republican nominee George H. W. Bush brought Horton up frequently during his campaign against Massachusetts governor and Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis.

He was commonly referred to as "Willie" Horton, despite never having gone by the nickname.

The renaming of the African-American Horton has been speculated to be the product of racist stereotyping.

A prominent PAC ad for Bush about Horton has been widely characterized as a textbook example of dog-whistle politics.

The program remained in effect through the intervening term of Governor Edward J. King, and was abolished during Dukakis' final term of office on April 28, 1988, after Dukakis had decided to run for president.

This abolition occurred only after the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune had run 175 stories about the furlough program and won a Pulitzer Prize.

The first person to mention the Massachusetts furlough program in the 1988 presidential campaign was Democratic Senator Al Gore.

During a debate before the New York primary, Gore took issue with the furlough program.

However, he did not mention the Horton incident or even his name, instead asking a general question about the program.

Republicans eagerly picked up the Horton issue after Dukakis won the Democratic nomination.

In June 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches.

Bush's campaign manager Lee Atwater said: "By the time we're finished, they're going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis's running mate."

Campaign staffer James Pinkerton returned with reams of material that Atwater told him to reduce to a 3 × index card, telling him, "I'm giving you one thing: You can use both sides of the 3×5 card."

Pinkerton discovered the furlough issue by watching the Felt Forum debate.

On May 25, 1988, Republican consultants met in Paramus, New Jersey, holding a focus group of "Reagan Democrats" who had voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984.

These focus groups convinced Atwater and the other Republican consultants that they should 'go negative' against Dukakis.

Further information regarding the furlough came from aide Andrew Card, a Massachusetts native whom President George W. Bush later named as his Chief of Staff.

Over the Fourth of July weekend in 1988, Atwater attended a motorcyclists' convention in Luray, Virginia.

Two couples talked about the Horton story featured in the July issue of Reader's Digest.

Atwater joined them without mentioning who he was.

Later that night, a focus group in Alabama had turned completely against Dukakis when presented the information about Horton's furlough.