Lock up the bad guys

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009

Those of us, and there aren't many in Southern Maryland, who watch Bill O'Reilly have seen his shows where he outs liberal judges in other states.

These aren't judges that Mr. O'Reilly simply dislikes or with whom he disagrees; these are judges who have done something so wrong, it is difficult to imagine they are judges and not simply hired guns for civil liberties groups. Well, it seems we have one right here in Southern Maryland.

Last week, law enforcement was looking for Edward Stanley Stewart III for allegedly raping a young woman. According to the police, 23-year-old Stewart was convicted last year of molesting an 8-year-old and was sentenced to 10 years in jail. However, the judge presiding over the case, whose name I do not know, suspended nine of those years. Stewart was soon out of jail, but was being supposedly closely monitored, though that didn't matter.

According to police, Stewart failed at least seven mandatory drug tests, which should have sent him back to jail to serve his suspended sentence.

Of course, our great judicial system here in Southern Maryland didn't allow that to happen; God forbid a bad guy actually goes to jail and serves his entire sentence. Just look at the July 28 brutal murder of Jeremias Gutierrez. Both of his killers should have been locked up a long time ago as well.

Interestingly enough, there is another article in the same paper and edition about how Maryland has received a grant from the National Institute of Justice to allow the state to help wrongly convicted inmates prove their innocence. I found that ironic.

Since Maryland, especially Southern Maryland, is not locking up the truly guilty, everyone in a Maryland jail must be innocent so there is really no need for the grant. Gov. Martin O'Malley should just let everyone go since that's what our judges do anyway.

As Diane Edge reminded us in her recent letter, we need to "throw the garbage out in 2010" and put some folks in office who will enforce the laws on which this great nation was built or that will at least hold those who are supposed to enforce the laws accountable so we don't have any other preventable rapes or murders in Charles County.

Tom Barnes, Bryans Road