ABC News Seeks Out UALR Expert for Presidential Story

A crew from ABC-TV in New York was on the UALR campus Tuesday facilitating an interview with Dr. Charles Chastain, professor in the UALR Department of Criminal Justice. The interview was included in a story aired Wednesday on Good Morning America; it ran again on World News Tonight with Charles Gibson. The subject: Chastain’s service as a member of the Arkansas Pardon and Parole Board and former governor Mike Huckabee’s role in the release of convicted rapist Wayne DuMond. Chastain was a member of the board when it voted in 1997 to parole the controversial rapist, a case that is getting national scrutiny as the former governor advances in the Republican Party primary campaign. Chastain voted against releasing DuMond, who later was involved in the rapes and murders of two other women. Chastain won UALR’s Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching in 2006.