-- From Times staff reporter Jonathan Martin:

The rules governing the transfer of out-of-state felons, which were sharply criticized after the slayings of four Lakewood police officers last year, have been changed.

The rule changes, pushed hard by Gov. Chris Gregoire and Department of Corrections (DOC) Secretary Eldon Vail, will make it easier to return out-of-state probationers and parolees home for misbehavior.

That was a key issue in the case of Maurice Clemmons, the Arkansas parolee who moved to Washington and killed four Lakewood police officers in November. In the months proceeding the tragedy, Washington's DOC had tried to get Arkansas to take Clemmons back based on the eight felony charges he racked up during fits of violence and delusion in this state.

The rule changes were approved Thursday by the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision, which oversees a 50-state agreement on the flow of supervised felons. The rule changes pushed by Vail, who was at the commission's annual meeting in San Antonio this week, will also give so-called "receiving states" -- those who accept another state's felon on supervision, or parole -- more background information on the incoming offender. That, too, was an issue with Clemmons, as Washington was unaware of some of Clemmons' criminal history when it accepted his case in 2004.

Gregoire, who unilaterally stopped accepting felon transfers from Arkansas after the Lakewood shootings, said of the changes in a news release. "I applaud the commissioners for making it less likely that Washington and other states will have an interstate case like Maurice Clemmons."

For more information on Clemmons' criminal oddessy, look for a five-part series adapted from a new Seattle Times book, The Other Side of Mercy, beginning in Sunday's print and online editions.