78. The world upside down

Last month a Lake City, South Carolina, police officer named William Webb pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.  The U.S. Attorney's office charged that he had sold cocaine from his patrol car, and took money from dealers, and sometimes even confiscated drugs from buyers and gave them back to the dealers to sell a second time.  He was accused of accepting a total $75,000 from one dealer over the course of years, although the news stories don't make it clear whether he admitted that.  He was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release.

This week, former Congressman Duke Cunningham was sentenced.  He "admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and evading more than $1 million in taxes", according to the LA Times.  In his plea agreement, Cunningham provided prosecutors with "a detailed list of payoffs, including cash, sweetheart real estate deals, antiques, trips, the use of a yacht, a deal on a Rolls-Royce and jewelry for his wife. The bribes from four unnamed co-conspirators came in exchange for Cunningham's using his influence to arrange lucrative defense contracts for high-tech equipment for intelligence gathering and analysis."  Cunningham was so blatant that he actually "kept a 'bribe menu' on congressional stationery indicating how much he demanded in exchange for contracts".  (Here's a selection of Cunningham quotes, which shows that his downfall was much of a piece with his rise.)

Cunningham's sentence, according to the LA Times, is "severe".  It's eight years and four months in federal prison.  Under the terms of the plea agreement, the judge could have sentenced Cunningham to ten years, but gave him a break because of his military record, reasoning that a "message should be sent for service to country."  (Now there's a military recruitment slogan!  Join the service and get a reduced sentence!)  South Carolina's Officer Webb, incidentally, also had an honorable military record, but his sentence is still 56  months longer than Cunningham's and (so far as the news reports reveal) he didn't even get the use of a yacht or "nine armoires, six Persian carpets, three antique oak doors, two candelabras and a china hutch."

Meanwhile, down in soggy south Louisiana, former Judge Alan Green was sentenced to 51 months (see post 67) and former Judge Bodenheimer got 46 months.  (See post 12.)  Both were caught in an investigation into bail bonding practices, which means that, in practical effect, they were using their power of office to shake down arrestees, most of them doubtless extremely poor, in order to line the pockets of their businessmen/partners.  In addition, Bodenheimer was caught on tape conspiring to plant Oxy-Contin in the car of a person who criticized the judge's poorly-maintained commercial fishing dock.  Green - unlike Bodenheimer, Officer Webb, or even Congressman Cunningham - refused to take any responsibility for his wrongdoing.

The New Orleans U.S. Attorney said in a press release following Green's sentencing that "[n]o crime is so disgraceful or shameful as the sacrifice of the integrity of a judicial office, or the violation of the sacred trust which citizens put in judges and other public servants in the criminal justice system."  Judges, those in whom we put our sacred trust, evidently disagree with this fine sentiment.

Whose acts were most harmful to individuals and most destructive of our society and institutions?  What Officer Webb did in his poverty-stricken small town was very bad.  But it was small potatoes compared to what Congressman Cunningham did.  And yet Congress and the military continued to function even with Cunningham forcing the military to buy substandard goods from war profiteers.  Cunningham was a glitch in the system.  But a crooked judge is the justice system for those unfortunate enough to be in his power.  A crooked judge is a negation of the very ideal of justice.  Judges who release dangerous people in exchange for kickbacks from bail bondsmen are sentencing innocent others to extreme terror and pain, even death.  A crooked judge is the world upside down.

Note the symmetry by which the sentences in these cases are upside down: the judges got about four years each, the flamboyant Congressman got twice as long, and the blue-collar, working-class guy got three times as much time.

Even after Booker, federal judges have limited discretion in imposing sentences.  The powerful demographic bias illustrated by these cases is institutionalized, not merely the idiosyncracy of individual judges.

George Carlin captured the spirit of the matter in Braindroppings, where he imagines the low-level Neolithic official - he calls him a primitive sergeant - whose job it is to explain to the band of cave-dwellers that, starting later this week, the corn god will be requiring the regular sacrifice of virgins.  Some members of the clan are less than thrilled.  The primitive sergeant reminds them that "I just make the announcements, OK?  I'm not involved with policy.  It came down from the high priests, that's all you gotta know."  He continues:

OK, one last point: You say, Why does it have to be a young virgin; why can't we throw a wrinkled old man in the volcano?  Lemme put it this way.  Did y'ever get a real good, close look at the high priests?  OK.  Once again, I rest my case.