Pubdate: Sun, 13 Mar 2005
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2005, The Tribune Co.
Contact:  http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Note: Limit LTEs to 150 words
Author: John Chase

'UNBALANCED' SYSTEM

Regarding "A Christian Perspective On Sami Al-Arian" by Kendra Gayle Lee 
(Other Views, March 3):

The maltreatment of Sami Al-Arian as he sits in prison awaiting trial is a 
symptom of an unbalanced federal criminal justice system .

The imbalance is the unintended consequence of legislation enacted in the 
mid-1980s to narrow the variation in sentences from judge to judge and 
district to district for similar crimes. But it didn't do that. Instead it 
shifted sentencing discretion from the judge to the prosecutor, whose 
charges virtually preordain the sentence.

JOHN CHASE

Palm Harbor 
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MAP posted-by: Beth