BRING BACK JUSTICE

The classic statue of Justice is a blindfolded female figure, holding a
scale in one hand and a sword in the other, but ever-harsher definitions of
offenses and formulaic sentencing have tilted the scales toward a more
Draconian system with scant room for compassion or moderation.

In recent decades, tough-on-crime Colorado lawmakers have changed homicide
statutes to increase the severity of offenses and used mandatory minimum
sentencing to effectively eliminate sentencing discretion from the courts.
Other states have done the same with sentencing, and so has the federal
government.

Colorado cranked up its homicide statutes by introducing classes of
felonies in the late 1960s and then broadened the definition of first-
degree murder by substituting deliberation for premeditation. The old
categories of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter were made more severe.

At the federal level, sentencing changes are mandatory minimums on
steroids, particularly for drug offenses. After the death of Boston Celtics
draft choice Len Bias in 1986, Congress, whipped into a frenzy by House
Speaker Tip O'Neill, passed sledgehammer laws with severe sentences. Even
minor drug offenders can get from 15 to 30 years in prison, unlike kingpins
with money to hire top-flight lawyers, who can cut deals to lessen their
clients' time behind bars.

Sentencing discretion shifted from the bench to the prosecutors who choose
the charges. With more than 90 percent of cases settled by plea bargains,
how the charges are framed effectively determines sentencing.

The traditional power of juries to make justice less harsh also was offset
by ratcheting up the severity of crimes such as manslaughter.

And although the federal war on drugs hasn't stemmed the flow and abuse of
illegal drugs, it certainly has filled up penitentiaries.

A one-size-fits-all approach has led to injustices, such as Lisl Auman's
life-without-possibility-of-parole sentence in the felony murder of Denver
Police Officer Bruce VanderJagt in 1997, or the harsh sentence of abused
wife Manuela Garcia for the killing of her husband. Both women deserved
prison time - but the system no longer has sufficient mechanisms to match
verdicts and sentences to specific circumstances.

Those who champion iron-fisted laws might consider that more than seven
decades of autocratic rule failed utterly to eliminate crime in the former
Soviet Union.

Somewhere along the way, Americans seem to have forgotten that laws exist
to foster justice - not to satisfy the blood lust of victims' kin.

It's time to reverse the push for vengeance and return to the legal
principles that were a hallmark of the American justice system. Hanging
them all - or throwing away the key - isn't a satisfactory answer for the
21st century.