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. The state inmate furlough program, originally signed into law by Republican governor Francis Sargent in 1972, excluded convicted first-degree murderers.Iberra hadn't committed any serious crimes before this incident.
Horton was in prison for murder, and was let out on a furlough program created by Republicans. That Dukakis didn't fix the problem fast enough is on him, but he did fix it.