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As Mike Huckabee surges forward in the Republican presidential race he is being dogged by questions about a gruesome criminal case which 15 years ago briefly threatened to damage the White House hopes of another Arkansas Governor — Bill Clinton.

For several days Mr Huckabee has been struggling to explain his position over the release of a castrated rapist who, after being granted parole, went on to rape and kill again.

The scrutiny of his record reflects his rise in opinion polls from single digits a few weeks ago to a lead of up to 17 per cent in Iowa, where the nominating process begins on January 3.

In the past 24 hours Mr Huckabee has had to explain comments from the 1990s suggesting that Aids patients should be quarantined and a promise to “take this nation back to Christ”.

It is his record on law and order, though, that has attracted the most interest. As Governor of Arkansas, Mr Huckabee helped to grant twice as many pardons and commutations as his three predecessors combined, including Mr Clinton, according to figures published yesterday by the Associated Press. Among those benefiting were Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones guitarist who was pardoned for a 1975 traffic offence after Mr Huckabee — who plays bass guitar in a band — met him at a rock concert.

Mr Huckabee insists that he is not soft on crime, pointing out that he signed more execution warrants than any other governor. Opponents, however, are using the case of Wayne DuMond to suggest otherwise.

In 1985 DuMond was convicted of raping Ashley Stevens, a distant cousin of Mr Clinton, the Arkansas Governor at the time. Her father, Walter “Stevie” Stevens, was part of Democratic establishment that nurtured Mr Clinton’s career.

DuMond said that, while he was awaiting trial, masked men burst into his home, tied him up with fishing line and cut out his testicles. The local sheriff, Coolidge Conlee, scooped up the testicles and displayed them in a jar of formaldehyde on his desk. DuMond later won $110,000 in civil damages against Conlee after telling a court: “Those were my testicles. He didn’t have no right to take them.”

The case became a campaigning point for right-wingers. They cited doubtful DNA evidence and claimed that DuMond was a victim of the Democratic party machine. Mr Clinton was criticised for refusing to grant clemency and, while he was campaigning for the presidency in 1992, Lieutenant Governor Jim Tucker reduced DuMond’s sentence to 40 years.

By the time Mr Huckabee became governor in 1996, he had met DuMond’s wife and was promising to release him. After advice from medical experts — thought to have told him that DuMond was still capable of rape — Mr Huckabee allowed the decision to be taken by the parole board, which released DuMond in September 1999. Two members of the board have said recently that they were pressured by the Governor to grant parole and there have been suggestions that he received letters warning that DuMond would strike again.

Mr Huckabee denies both claims, insisting: “None of us could’ve predicted what DuMond could’ve done.” In 2001 DuMond raped and killed Carol Sue Shields, 39, in Missouri and is also said to have been responsible for the rape and murder of Sara Andrasek, 23, who was pregnant. He died in prison two years ago of natural causes.

Mr Huckabee said in Iowa last week: “I can’t fix it. I can only tell the truth and let the truth be my judge.”

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