[Vision2020] Deary Teens Sentenced

Sunil Ramalingam sunilramalingam at hotmail.com
Mon Apr 26 16:36:36 PDT 2010


First of all, Tom, why would it be Bill Thompson's job to say "This
 punishment was imposed because . . .
" when he isn't the one imposing it? I don't think he should speculate 
as to the judge's reasons. Rob Kwate, attorney for Austin Rickert told me that Judge Calhoun explained his reasoning in court. Seems to me your gripe is with the 
Daily News for not reporting it. Of course this was an initial report, and perhaps there will be more in a later article.  But why wait for more information when one can start ranting now?

Or you could have gone to court to hear
 it yourself. The hearing was moved to Courtroom One. There was plenty of room for citizens wanting to be informed. No need to beg for information from anyone, all anyone had to do was show up.

As for this from your post:

"However, I do recall reading, from the daily
News article, . . .Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill
Thompson asked for a lesser sentencing of placing the two boys within the Department of Juvenile Correction program where they could obtain therapy and live in a group-home setting."
 

It seems that Judge Calhoun did not care to let the boys off as easy as Bill Thompson."

No, it doesn't. Perhaps an earlier, erroneous report from the Daily News used the word "lesser." It doesn't say that now, because it's NOT a "lesser sentencing" request.  The prosecutor was asking for a MORE severe penalty, the most he could get, not the lesser one that they received. That's juvie prison he was trying to send them to, not a camping trip.

Seems to me you owe Thompson an apology. He wasn't trying to "
 let the boys off as easy" at all, was he? Someone who knows anything about the Idaho juvenile justice system would have recognized that error right off the bat. Someone who was there would have been able to hear Thompson ask for the maximum.

So you were wrong in that post, Tom, and insulted him for no reason at all. I don't make a practice of defending prosecutors, but it seems to me that someone should get an occasional fact right before publicly ripping someone. 

Sunil

 
 		 	   		  
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