The controversial pardons by former Kentucky GOP Gov. Matt Bevin were rejected as "completely inappropriate" by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
"Honestly, I don't approve," McConnell told WKYT, a Frankfurt, Kentucky TV station. "It seems to me it was completely inappropriate.
"I expect he had the power to do it, but looking at the examples of people who were incarcerated as a result of heinous crimes – no, I don't approve of it."
Bevin lost his re-election to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and, on his way out of office, Bevin pardoned a man convicted of reckless homicide. The man's brother hosted a Bevin campaign fundraiser, according to the report.
Another man, Patrick Baker, was pardoned after a conviction for the home invasion death of a man in front of his wife and childing, per WKYT.
"I am not convinced that justice has been served on the death of Donald Mills, nor am I convinced that the evidence has proven the involvement of Patrick Baker as a murderer," Bevin told the Louisville, Kentucky, Courier Journal.
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