Walton, Judge in Libby Case, Draws Fire Over Prison Sentence

[cal04]

(snip)
``I was lifting weights, and I raised my fists,'' Walton said. ``I thought I could handle him.'' His father grabbed him by the collar, demanding that he obey and turn himself around.

He did, and now he's the one in authority, known for tough sentences and stern lectures for the powerful and non-powerful alike. Maybe too tough, say some usually law-and-order conservatives. They are criticizing him over the 2 1/2 year prison term he ordered Libby to serve for obstructing an investigation into the leak of a Central Intelligence Agency operative's identity.

Those who know Walton, 58, say they weren't surprised at the sentence. ``Reggie has a concern for the system'' and understands the importance of being impartial, said former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Walton's attitude, he said, is: ``If you do the crime, be prepared to do the time.''


(snip)
In an interview last week in his federal court chambers in Washington, Walton said it's important to get sentences right in order to maintain the public's confidence in the judiciary.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=afCeTxWR.V.s&refer=home

[ThomWV]

1. I thought the sentence was far to lenient

But I claim no expertise so maybe it was fair after all.

[midnight]

2. Anyone who destroyed the Wilson's should be in jail. But why

are Judge Walton's critics oblivious to the important fact that a law was broken. Also a monitoring system for W.M.D. was destroyed. Libby was a party to this, and so were many other people. He should have company.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Yup, gimme some old-fashioned lawn order for these 'conservative,'

'strict constructionist,' 'three strikes n yer out'-spouting, jail loving, capital punishment loving, police-state promoting, 'our society has gone to hell because of liberals'-demagoguing, rightwing Republican gangsters. I am so sick of their hypocrisy. I've been listening to it my whole life, from Joe McCarthy and his anti-communist witchhunts, to Nixon crisis #1 through Nixon crisis #6, to fake cowboy sherfs Goldwater and Reagan, to Bush I's racist campaigning, to Bush II's 'we're gonna git them tersts, dead or alive,' one fucking Republican gangster and liar after another, who put petty criminals away for 50 years and make exceptions for themselves and other rich lawbreakers, master thieves and mass murderers.

Now we have hundreds of thousands of people in prison, half of whom don't belong there and should be immediately released--all poor, all victims of circumstances, none with adequate legal representation--and we can't say for sure how many innocent people we have fried in the death chambers. And billions and billions and billions of dollars stuffed into the pockets of crime profiteers for a "war on drugs" that does absolutely nothing to stop drug addiction or 'prohibition' gangsters, and into the pockets of war profiteers not only for unjust, illegal, heinous corporate resource wars, but for jailing and torturing thousands of innocent people because they happen to inhabit a country that has oil.

Horrible law-breaking. Horrible thievery. Horrible tyrants and fascists. From Goldwater who wanted to nuke Vietnam to Bush who wants to nuke Iran. All spouting 'big dick,' 'big law,' 'frontier justice' for the peons and the serfs and the cannon fodder, and impunity for the rich and the powerful.

So if 'conservative' judges want to try to rescue this party of liars, thieves and murderers from history's cesspool, have at 'em, I say. Three strikes and yer out! Ten strikes and yer out! Ahem...ten thousand strikes and yer out! Justice in here somewhere or other. A million strikes and yer out!