Terror & A Terrible Judge

Terror & a terrible judge
The New York Post  -  EDITORIAL  -  July 1, 2011

Manhattan Federal Court Judge Colleen McMahon this week sentenced three men to 25 years each in prison for plotting to bomb Riverdale synagogues.

Tough justice?  Actually, under a mandatory-minimum sentencing law, it was the least she could do -- and she didn't like it one little bit.  McMahon imposed the sentence on three of the four men convicted in the 2009 bomb plot (the fourth is awaiting a psychological evaluation) -- but only because she had no choice.  And she made it clear that she did not approve of the 25-year terms she was forced to impose after rejecting prosecutors' demands for life sentences.  The judge ripped into the government's handling of the case, claiming that "only the government could have made a 'terrorist' out of [defendant James] Cromitie, whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope."  She accepted defense arguments that the terror plot would never have happened had the four men not encountered a government informer, who became the chief prosecution witness.  Clearly, Cromitie and the others are morons. But they were determined to obtain the tools needed to destroy the synagogues -- so as a matter both of law and common sense, they were a damned sight more dangerous than the average trouble-seeking imbecile.  McMahon conceded that the men were "prepared to do real violence" -- albeit as "thugs for hire." And two months ago, she declared that Cromitie had become "an enthusiastic jihadist" who "showed no compunction" about placing bombs at a house of worship in an attempt to commit mass murder.  All of which was worth at least 25 years behind bars -- and a lot more than that.  But how light a sentence would she have handed out had she been given her druthers? Pretty light, we'd guess.  Happily, mandatory minimums are still the law, protecting society from terrorist wannabes like James Cromitie and his friends -- as well as from judges like Colleen McMahon.