TIME DOESN'T FIT THE CRIME

What we learned from the March 6 article about Daniel Richard Robertson, a
driver for a Tri-Met subcontractor who pleaded guilty to raping a mentally
disabled woman, are two things: First, that a dangerous man convicted of
murder (in 1973) was released after only about nine years, instead of
serving his original sentence of life in prison.

Second, that this same person, Robertson, has committed a second offense and
will again be in prison for a maximum of eight years and four months,
potentially endangering society again.

On the other hand, we read about a young woman with a cocaine habit in the
two-part article on the "war on drugs" (March 2). She is still serving a
life sentence for cocaine possession. In all likelihood, unless our laws
change, the convicted murderer will be released before the woman serving
time for her drug habit.

Is this really justice? Many of us have known for quite some time that the
laws are inconsistent, but here is a concrete example that is hard to
ignore. We can see from this example that law-enforcement resources applied
to victimless crimes could be better focused on violent crime.