“A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators has reached an agreement they believe will alleviate Republican fears that violent criminals will benefit from a bill to reform criminal sentences, a change some are calling a ‘Willie Horton’ fix.
“Horton was the felon who was furloughed in Massachusetts in 1986, after which he raped a woman in Maryland and killed her fiance. The event became part of the 1988 presidential campaign, and part of the Republican argument against Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.”