Judges Out of Tune

There has been considerable, and deserved, reaction from the public, politicians, the media and others about yesterday's announcement of a sentence reduction for a murderer.

The man at the centre of the story stole a car. He tried to steal some gas from a gas station, but a young employee interceded. The killer drove over the employee and dragged him screaming to his death over several kilometres.

The killer was charged with manslaughter, and yesterday had his sentence lowered by several years because of 3 mitigating factors: 1)his young age at the time of the offense (16 years), 2)his aboriginal status and dreadful family history, & 3)time already served.

The public is right. The critics are right.

Even the grandfather of the slain gas station attendant is Metis and he is right when he says that ethnicity and age are no excuses for murder.

All of this might have been debatable, save for one salient fact, which seems to have escaped the attention of the judges who reduced this man's sentence.

After the SOB did his killing, he bragged to friends about the deed. That's all you really need to know.

He should be in prison for life, and the erring judges should be pumping gas.