Lynch at Large

My old friend Ray Lincoln has been known to say that the really juicy news comes in the Saturday Paper. People are distracted over the weekend and Saturday papers are said to have the lowest readership. Smart folks with bad news know to tell it late Friday afternoon with the hope that it might even fall out of the television news cycle. There are a couple of such developments this weekend and they are from the Democrat-Gazette, which is a site that requires a subscription. It is worth your time to track down Saturday’s paper.

There is a shrewd and evil plan to curb reporting on the Arkansas General-Assembly. Under a plan hatched by Speaker Bill Stovall, the rostrum area will be redesigned to conveniently push reporters off the House floor to a glassed in gallery a full floor level above. Journalists would not even get a clear view of the members from the proposed relocation. They would also be deprived of the opportunity to immediately seek comments from elected representatives and a personal perspective of any procedural maneuvers. The State House spends your money, looks out after schools, safeguards drinking water and civil liberties. Any suggestion that would reduce the scrutiny of politicians should be considered wicked and sinister on the face.

Then there is the case of Every Donell “Boo” Richardson, who was previously charged with first-degree murder in the death of a west Little Rock woman who died after a chunk of concrete was thrown through her windshield from an I-630 overpass. Prosecutors withdrew the murder charge when the case moved to Pulaski County Circuit Court, and they substituted it with a Class Y felony charge of terroristic threatening, which carries the same penalty as first-degree murder: 10-40 years or life in prison. "We felt like the terroristic act more effectively reflects what he has done," Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson said.

Defense attorneys complain that the new charges lower the state’s burden of proof. I don’t know about that I have a nagging worry that the new charges make a plea-bargain to some further reduced charge even more likely. A bad precedent was set earlier this week. Former State Representative Dwayne Dobbins entered a guilty plea to some very serious charges involving his conduct with a minor female and then, after working out a sweet deal to avoid jail time, pretty much denied the essence of the allegation. Maybe I am being a cranky old man, but having to resign a public trust after admitting guilt to a serious offense is not part of the punishment. It is a natural consequence, which should be of not concern to the judicial system. To date, the good offices of Judge Willard Proctor or Prosecutor Larry Jegley have been silent. You go figure it out for yourself, but I am becoming very skeptical.