Protecting society (Editorial)

Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA)

Protecting society

Justice is personified by the Roman goddess Justitia, who is usually represented with a sword and / or scales and whose eyes are often blindfolded as a token of impartiality.

This is the way we like to believe justice operates _ an impartial judge weighing the evidence.

Earlier this week, President Judge D. Richard Eckman did just that when he sentenced Keith Chul Weaver to 35-70 years in prison for murdering his adoptive parents and sister on Feb. 17, 1991.

Many found the sentence unduly harsh. Weaver has, after all, expressed contrition for the murders and has accepted responsibility for his actions. The love the remaining members of his family have for him was evident throughout the proceedings. Furthermore, testimony indicated that the Korean-born teen-ager may have been abused as a child before his adoption.

But Weaver, who was 14 at the time of the murders, also told the judge he does not know why he killed his adoptive parents and sister nor does he know if it could happen again. A psychologist agreed.

Although judges have access to manuals and suggested sentencing guidelines, such sentences are not easily reached.

Keith Weaver is not a terrible young man. Rather, he appears to be basically a decent young man who did a terrible thing. The concern that he might repeat this act, however, must remain the judge's primary concern.

Judge Eckman, while recognizing the love that binds the Weaver family together, nevertheless closed his eyes to that fact. When he weighed the evidence, he realized that "the rehabilitation of the defendant is and must be secondary" to the protection of the public.

It is a harsh decision but a just one.