From his picture, he appears old enough to where a 28 year sentence pretty much is life.
He will be segregated in protective custody. Not the same thing.
Not enough, IMO. This story seems to be a couple of years old, not sure why it is resurfacing in the news.
He should have been taken out the back and shot, like any other slaver.
For the whole sordid story, it has a Wikipedia page.
I’ve met Mark Ciavarella, and as slimy as he looks on the news, he’s 11 times worse in person. Smarmy, arrogant, scheming son of a bitch.
It’s not that they let him do it, it’s more that no one was willing to challenge him on it for fear of retaliation, and the other Good Ol’ Boys wouldn’t because they were in on it too.
Anyway, Luzerne County government has been turned on its head. A couple other judges who were implicated stepped down, one of the sitting county commisioners was sent up the river, and a bunch of people from the former clerk of courts to a sheriff’s deputy who got drafted to run envelopes full of cash back and forth are in hot water.
It’s the main reason why the voters voted to switch from the three-commisioner system to a home rule system with an 11 member council, (which had been tried before back in the 90s with no success) and there’s a lot more transparency. Last year’s elections were basically a “where was Candidate X during ‘Kids for Cash’??? Well???” bitchfest.
And public distrust of county government has never been higher around here.
Hardly. I don’t know whether he or Mericle came up with the idea, but he was at the top of the food chain from the start.
Anyone saying he should be killed in jail, or executed, or kept in solitary is a worse threat to justice than he was.
Which does not mean I’m defending his actions.
And you’re a fucking retard who doesn’t understand the difference between making a value judgment, and being in a position to implement that value judgment in a manner that’s an abuse of that power.
Seriously, do you have a functioning brain? And what box do you keep it in while you’re posting on the Dope?
Yes, I know what a value judgement is, and I’m making one. My judgement is that anyone who supports the death penalty, or vigilante murder, even in theory, is a greater threat to justice that this judge was - even if they don’t have the power to implement it. Of course, living in a democracy, they do have that power, so it’s a moot point.
You poltroon.
Do I have to watch out for Batman, now that I’m such a “great threat to justice?”
No, he’d be on the side of extra-judicial killing. Which is fine in fantasy, less so in the real world.
Of course it does, you dumb bastard. You’re trying to pretend that a government official who sells innocent children into slavery is less unjust than merely saying that said slavery should carry the death penalty.
Maybe you’ve noticed that both the Federal government and the vast majority of states have the death penalty.
So what you’re saying is that our existing system of justice, in its normal operation, is a far greater threat to justice than this judge was.
Yep, you’re a fucking idiot. Not to mention so far out there that you probably confuse Glenn Greenwald with Joe Lieberman.
I also was impressed by the blithering stupidity of this part:
Let’s see: because we’re in a democracy, anyone who supports the death penalty has the power to implement it.
If you passed high school civics, they must’ve graded on one hell of a curve.