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.

Lynn De La Torre,
Southwest Portland