There are certain crimes I view as beyond the bounds of forgiveness by mortal man. Some include crimes of violence that shock the conscience -- murder, rape, sexual abuse. Others involve crimes of betrayal -- including those which involve betrayal of one's country. In such cases, I oppose leniency as a matter of principle, for such leniency undermines any sense of justice towards those against whom the crimes were committed.

And so I today stand up and demand that Judge Larry Alan Burns throw the book at Duke Cunningham.

Randy "Duke" Cunningham has recurring prostate cancer and will likely die in prison if sentenced to the 10 years behind bars prosecutors are seeking, his defense lawyers said in court papers filed late Friday.

The documents also reveal that Cunningham and his wife, Nancy, are estranged and that the former 50th District congressman, who pleaded guilty to bribery and tax evasion in November, now lives on a ranch performing manual labor in exchange for room and board.

The U.S. attorney's office in San Diego is arguing that the four years Cunningham accepted bribes and cheated on his taxes ---- as well as tampering with witnesses after he came under federal scrutiny ---- warrant the maximum possible sentence.

Cunningham has admitted demanding bribes starting as early as 2000 and continuing until 2004 in exchange for steering Pentagon contracts to defense contractors MZM Inc. of Washington and ADCS of Poway.

But Cunningham's lead attorney, K. Lee Blalack, argued his client's military service during the Vietnam War and other civic and charitable contributions before the bribery took place, as well as his health status, should cause the court to hand down a lesser sentence of six years.

Reached at his Washington home Saturday, Blalack said he is asking the court for mercy.

"Mr. Cunningham admits doing something very wrong," he said. "The question is what constitutes harsh punishment for a 64-year-old man with health concerns which make a 10-year sentence likely to be unsurvivable.

"When you combine that with his lifelong contributions unusually found in one man to his country in war and in peace, that should warrant some mercy and a sentence appropriate for paying his debt to society."

What a load of bullshit! Cunningham betrayed his country by taking bribes every bit as much as if he had passed defense secrets to our nation's enemies. To argue that he deserves anything less than the maximum sentence based uponhis prior good works (which didn't stop him from taking bribes) or his health situation (which is irrelevant to his crime) is to argue that those somehow diminish the harm that he did. But those factors do not do anything to mitigate the harm -- and indeed, like the bribes themselves, are indicative of a flawed character that puts himself and his needs/desires above society's need to exact retributive justice in official corruption cases.

Besides, the punisments meted out in cases of official corruption need to be severe -- that is the best way to dissuade those who would betray America through their own avarice. The message should be loud nad clear -- take a bribe and this country will sek to have you serve every day of your sentence, even if that means you die in prison instead of surrounded by your loved ones.even

Posted by: Greg at 11:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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