LET JUDGES RESPOND TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF EACH CRIMINAL CASE

Congress should grant the request of federal judges who want lawmakers to
repeal measures that will restrict their ability to make the punishment fit
the crime.

The legislation was passed by Congress earlier this year. It is aimed at
limiting the discretion judges have when sentencing federal criminals.

Attorney General John Ashcroft feels that some federal judges are going too
easy on criminals and not giving sentences as stringent as those required
by federal sentencing guidelines. So he pushed for the legislation, and he
embarked on a program to monitor the sentences handed down by judges.

Unfortunately, Congress didn't give much time to debating or even
discussing the provisions restricting judges. They were tucked into a bill
that established a national Amber Alert system to help authorities find
abducted children.

After the bill passed, judges and even many members of Congress were
outraged to find out about the provisions included in the bill.

This week, the Judicial Conference of the United States, the federal
judiciary's policy-making group, unanimously voted to ask Congress to
repeal the provisions. Lawmakers should do so.

The nation's federal judges should not be automatons, imposing whatever
sentence is indicated by a mathematical formula using federal sentencing
guidelines.

Judges represent the human side of justice. They hold their positions
because of their knowledge and their judgment. They should have the ability
to weigh the circumstances of each crime and the people involved and tailor
a suitable punishment.

A drug trafficker who is caught may deserve the maximum sentence that can
be applied. But his girlfriend, who had no part in his crimes but knew
about them, may not deserve the minimum sentence she may receive. A wise
judge can discern the difference, determine degrees of culpability and hand
down a just sentence.

If judges are being too lenient, then the answer is better judges, not a
stricter system that deletes human judgment and flexibility from the system.