Dear Editor:
Poor Asia Saddleback. She will never see a four-year reduction in the time that she has to live with a bullet near her heart. But her shooter got a four-year credit for time served in pretrial custody even though he was in custody due to his own actions.
Nor will Asia Saddleback see a two-year reduction in her suffering. But due to what the appeal court believed to be the trial judge’s “sentencing error” there was a two-year reduction in jail time for the shooter.
As I figure it, altogether Christopher Shane Crane had six years taken off of his post-trial jail time “suffering” even though he choose his actions that day and it is possible that he could recover from his substance abuse habit. But what actions did poor Asia Saddleback chose that day to earn his placing an irretrievable bullet next to her spine?
It would seem that our justice system does work. It just doesn’t work very well for the innocent victim. If Asia Saddleback’s suffering had resulted from the actions of a doctor, lawyer or some other professional, she could at least have received financial compensation. Unfortunately for her she was seriously wounded by a common thug with no assets and no morals.
I believe that what we certainly do need is more legal minds, like the original judge, who have “true grit?”
Julian Ross Hudson