Right a wrong

To the editor:

If after Guy Rivera shot and missed hitting a man he tried to rob in 2016, he had been prosecuted for attempted murder and sentenced to life without parole, he would not have been free to murder Police Officer Jonathan Diller. Instead, he served just three-and-a-half years for attempted robbery.

Actor Michael Stuhlbarg was hit with a rock allegedly thrown by Xavier Israel, who has a history of unprovoked assaults against four people going back to 2022. 

Evadne Harrington was arrested for abusing a dog who was chained, starved and urine-soaked. If convicted of animal abuse, all he can be sentenced to is one year. 

Belkis Lopez told his ex-girlfriend, "If I can't have you, no one will." After murdering her, he got 25 years. In 2049, he'll be free to kill again.

Some argue that never releasing the guilty punishes them for what they did on their worst day, disregarding how bad their worst day was. 

They should instead devote their energy to getting the federal government to release an innocent man, American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier. A document from 1980, acquired through freedom of information law, shows that the FBI hid ballistics test results that proved Peltier did not kill the two FBI agents he was accused of killing. But few are calling for his release.

But it cannot be done with a presidential pardon because, as Marc Bullaro wrote, pardons are only for the guilty. Our supposedly wonderful founding fathers decided that only the guilty, not the innocent, should be pardoned. That sounds like something that if suggested by Curly, would have gotten him poked in the eyes by Moe.

The Constitution should be amended so that pardons are only for the innocent and those convicted of breaking unjust laws.

Richard Warren