The couple had benefited from a pardon granted by the governor of Missouri in August 2021. He thus demanded the return of two pistols entrusted to the authorities.
Mark McCloskey, an American lawyer from St. Louis, Missouri, will not be able to recover the two weapons he had entrusted to justice in July 2021, although he and his wife Patricia have been pardoned by the Republican governor of the Missouri, Mike Parson, reports the media The Hill.
The couple had threatened protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement, which had spread across the United States in the summer of 2020 after the death by a white police officer of African-American George Floyd. Judging that the demonstrators were getting too close to their property, Mark McCloskey and his wife came out armed in front of their home.
“His guilt remains”
As part of an agreement with the courts, the couple pleaded guilty in July 2021, and entrusted the authorities with two weapons: an AR-15 and a pistol. But in August 2021, Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parson pardoned the attorney and his wife.
The couple had thus launched a new procedure to recover their weapons, as well as obtain reimbursement of the legal costs incurred. In vain.
“Although the pardon granted by the governor erases the plaintiff’s conviction record, his guilt remains and the conditions that provided for guilt also remain,” Joan Moriarty, a Missouri judge who denied the McCloskeys’ request, said Wednesday.
The lawyer, who tried to get into politics, announced that he will appeal this rejection.
