Regarding the sentencing in the Josh Lorbiecki murder (“Grief turns to outrage” Aug. 22): when the Honorable Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Richard Thorpe sentenced three of the four young men to only two months longer than the state-mandated minimum term, he essentially trashed the concept of justice.
Clearly, Thorpe saw his error by sentencing the fourth defendent to a harsher sentence – 12 years – because he was the one who used the baseball bat. This is even though the prosecutor recommended longer sentences. When do these thugs get out for good behavior? Seven or eight years? Or less?
When four young men beat a 15 year-old to death and they receive such light sentences, it is a mockery of the entire concept that “we are a nation of laws.”
Judge Thorpe is an insult to all law-abiding citizens. After looking at the sentences, and the fact that the victim was white while the culprits were black, I am forced to conclude that the sentences represent “politically correct” sentencing and had nothing to do with justice. Had the races been reversed, you can be sure that the Honorable Judge Thorpe would have used hate crime laws and everything else in his power to give those found guilty a maximum – not a minimum – sentence.
The term “honorable” does not belong with the name Judge Richard Thorpe, who should be ashamed of himself. Clearly, Richard Thorpe, who has two years remaining on his term, is unfit to sit on the bench. Certainly, he is unqualified to be re-elected. The family of the victim and all citizens should be outraged at such injustice.
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