Posted on 11/21/2007 6:11:19 AM PST by Hemingway's Ghost
The father of a Washington woman slaughtered along with her new husband - allegedly at the hands of a convicted Bay State killer - said his daughter’s accused murderer never should have been released from prison here.
“It’s because of stupidity in Massachusetts that my daughter is dead,” said Darrel Slater, 55, who is preparing to bury his daughter, Beverly Mauck, 28, and her husband Brian Mauck, 30.
The couple was executed in their home in rural Graham, Wash., Saturday after an alleged argument with Daniel Tavares Jr., 41, who in 1991 pleaded guilty to hacking his mother to death with a carving knife in their Somerset home in served 16 years for that crime.
Precisely. Since the ability to appoint judges is one of our hot-button issues here, this should be red meat for Mitt's GOP opponents. I kind of feel bad for Mitt on this one: he probably searched high and low to find a woman he could appoint in good faith, and probably figured a prosecutor would be fairly conservative, and the president of a temple might have a certain amount of values . . . and since she was a Democrat, she might get approved . . . then, POW, right in the kisser with this one.
She must've lost her mind when she let that savage go off scot-free.
Seriously, someone please explain to me why these judges continue to remain on the bench.
Perhaps you’re right. The only good thing that might come of this terrible case is a future reluctance on the part of state jurists to practice leniency toward career criminals. In the meantime, two innocent people appear to have paid a terrible price for another’s misjudgment.
Right, and Bush doesn’t have to face a Dem congress...
There is Section 8 housing in Andover, but it's right on the border with Lawrence, a city that is the rough equivalent to Hell on Earth.
Every time I see a picture of that guy I wonder...”What was Mary Matalin thinking??”
susie
Bookmark.
Exactly. The number one person to blame in this horrific saga is the perp himself. The second is the judge who showed...poor judgement, to say the least. The third is the rules and regulations put in place by the legislature both past and present. And the fourth is the Governor who appointed the judge.
We were all bellyaching when so many Republican-nominated judges were not being given an up-or-down vote. We said, "Hey, Judge So-and-So has a "qualified" or "most qualified" rating from the ABA so there is no excuse at holding up the nomination.
Then we have a Republican governor in a state with a 9-to-1 ratio in regards to party affiliation and the pool of said qualified nominees will unquestionably include candidates that may not agree with the view of law the Governor supports.
So we can't have it both ways - we either support a basic vouching system (unquestionably abused by the Dems) that has a certain amount of sway regarding the strength of the legislature's main party afiliation or we don't. If it can be shown that this judge had shown similar egregious behavior BEFORE her nomination then people would have a point. But to expect that in a sea of blue candidates none will be picked, using the very same rationale we have deplored used towards "conservative judges", then we really didn't mean what we said.
There's actually a dedicated group of "rainbow warriors" who stand at the intersection of routes 133 and 28 in Andover just about every weekend, holding all sorts of moonbat "Stop the War" and BDS-related signs. You think they might take their symbolic protest to her house instead? After all, her inaction contributed directly to the deaths of two innocent young people.
If the judge is truly disconsolate over the unforeseen result of her decision, then any such demonstration would serve no good purpose.
If, on the other hand, she’s like some of Dukakis’ judges, then, maybe so.
Yeah, we have a group like that here in Boca.
susie
Deje freaking vu.
That's the head-scratcher right there: Tuttman was an experienced prosecutor: she's seen cats like Tavares day in and day out. Hell, she's put that type of cat in the slammer.
Why did she get soft as a grape all of a sudden? What the hell happens to a lawyer when he or she gets appointed to the bench? Are the criminals suddenly less yucky?
I have no way of knowing how she feels about it. It doesn’t really matter to me. If she’s truely sorry it happened, she should resign from the bench and let a more qualified person take her place. However, the public needs to be made uncomfortable enough to take action.
susie
Ya gotta wonder. It makes no sense.
susie
With respect to the cop, yeah. But with respect to the judge ... that statement is idiotic when it comes to the application of judicial (and prosecutorial) discretion. Mitt has blood on his hands with this one.
I could not agree with you more. The broad scope of judicial discretion inherently includes instances like this one, and in this case, the failure of such discretion resulted in the deaths of two innocent people. Political views most certainly matter when it comes to judges. When hasn't it?
A former prosecutor is not qualified? Granted it is a reversal of roles but it is simply incorrect to think this career path is an anomoly. "How can I learn to judge cases without being a judge?" is the Catch-22 scenario being advocated.
What does the Globe say now? Anything?
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