JOHNSON ACTED JUSTLY TO COMMUTE SENTENCE

For all his shortcomings as a leader, Gov. Gary Johnson deserves respect
and credit for focusing state and national attention on one of the most
troublesome, complex and divisive issues of our time: drug law, policy and
justice. He has been berated by leaders of both political parties and the
entrenched drug war bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., for raising important
questions, not only about the ineffectiveness and cost of our anti-drug
effort but also about its basic lack of justice.

While the appropriate reforms are not crystal clear, Johnson has made a
strong case, in particular for how anti-drug laws have unfairly afflicted
minorities and how they have been unjustly used to jail nonviolent
offenders who often get disproportionate sentences. Many drug offenders jam
our crowded prisons, frequently getting tougher sentences than violent
criminals.

Last week, Johnson walked the talk.

He freed state convict Belinda Dillon, a 25-year-old mother who was serving
a six-year sentence for drug-related crimes before Johnson commuted her
sentence and ordered her released.

This wasn't just a symbolic act of mercy by Johnson. He sent a powerful
message that exposed a fundamental, unacceptable flaw in our criminal
justice system.

While incarcerated, Dillon was raped over a period of about two months by
at least three corrections officers, who in turn were convicted of criminal
sexual penetration.

But for these violent crimes against a defenseless woman in their custody,
these officers received a measly year to 18 months in jail.

In dark contrast, Dillon was serving a six-year term for being convicted of
stealing less than $1,000 to support her drug habit, even though the victim
of the theft did not want her to go to jail.

"She received," Johnson aptly observed, "a harsh sentence for her
nonviolent crimes while those who (violently) abused and mistreated her
received collectively less time for their sexual offenses."

Dillon not only deserved to be free, but if she had been given a more
sensible sentence to start with perhaps she would not have been victimized
by the criminal acts of people who were entrusted to enforce justice.

They not only violated her and the law; they broke the public trust. Their
sentences, compared with hers, show that justice in America is not blind.
It is outrageous.

The next governor of this state could do a lot worse than to pick up where
Johnson leaves off.

In order: a systematic review of all existing sentences of drug-offending
convicts to assess the proportionality of the sentence to their crime; and
work with the Legislature to develop sensible drug law reforms.

Meanwhile, Johnson could do further public service by continuing to
stimulate a serious debate not only about drug law reform but about how to
achieve justice in America today.