Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Where's the justice?

The other day, I was riding the bus to go take a pre-employment drug test, and as I was on the bus I was looking at the ad boards and noticed one that said something to the effect that if you use a gun while you are commiting a crime, you can expect to serve extra time (hey, that rhymes!) to the tune of 5, 10, 15 or more years. Then I read this article in the P-I this morning, about the arrest of a young man accused of the beating death of Darrel Johnson, a 69 year old Navy vet, and in the article it was stated that the young man who was arrested, had been arrested earlier for armed robbery of two youths, and had been sentenced to 6 months! Six months? From what I saw in the bus ad, you spent extra years in jail for using a gun while commiting a crime. If this had been applied in the young mans case - spending years behind bars, instead of six measly months - do you suppose that Mr. Johnson would still be alive?

In the case of this young man, if he is proven guilty of murdering Mr. Johnson, I hope they throw the book at him. I would also hope that this brings shame - and possibly some legal problems - to those involved in the prosecuting of, and sentencing in, the armed robbery case.

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