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Posted by Larry The Cable Guy
on June 18, 2009, 8:05 am
This is a prime example why this asshole needs to be voted out of office. Today he's busy trying to raise the state sales tax to 6.5% because septa in phila needs more money to shuttle the niiggers around the city. And you and I will have to foot the bill. This govner needs to go.
Judge blasts Rendell’s suggested sentence
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BY BEN WOLFGANG
STAFF WRITER
bwolfgang@republicanherald.com
Published: Thursday, June 18, 2009 4:13 AM EDT
From the bench Wednesday afternoon, county President Judge William E. Baldwin criticized Gov. Ed Rendell’s recent interjection into the sentencing of Shenando-ah-area teens Brandon J. Piekarsky and Derrick M. Donchak.
“I’ve never before heard of a head of state giving a suggested sentence for a specific criminal case. I am not giving consideration to the governor’s recommendation,” Baldwin said, referencing a letter Rendell sent to county District Attorney James P. Goodman on May 28.
A copy was provided to The Republican-Herald on Wednesday by Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo.
In that letter — the second time the governor has weighed in on last July’s high-profile death of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala, an illegal Mexican immigrant — Rendell asks for the harshest possible sentences for Piekarsky, 17, and Donchak, 19.
“I also believe ... the maximum sentence is warranted given both the sheer brutality of Piekarsky’s and Donchak’s deadly attack and that the crime appears to be racially motivated,” Rendell said in the letter, which Goodman later shared with Baldwin and defense counsel.
On May 1, Piekarsky and Donchak were acquitted of the most serious charges in connection with Ramirez’s death. On Wednesday, they were sentenced for simple assault charges and alcohol-related charges.
Piekarsky must serve six to 23 months, while Donchak must serve seven to 23 months in county prison.
Rendell had previously urged federal charges against the teens in a May letter to the Department of Justice — a move that drew harsh rebukes from county Commissioner Francis V. McAndrew and U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, D-17.
Goodman said such a letter from a sitting governor is “clearly unusual,” while Frederick J. Fanelli, Piekarsky’s attorney, echoed Baldwin’s opinion.
“I’ve never before seen a head of state interject himself in a case like this,” Fanelli said in court Wednesday, adding Rendell’s comments amount to “unprecedented intervention.”
Before handing down the sentences Wednesday, Baldwin blasted Rendell’s involvement.
“I can only conclude he must have been misinformed about the nature of the verdict,” Baldwin said.
While Rendell again stressed in the letter he does not wish to “second guess” the jury, he specifically cites charges Piekarsky and Donchak were acquitted of.
“This kind of senseless criminal behavior and ethnic intimidation is never appropriate,” the letter states.
Piekarsky and Donchak were each found not guilty of ethnic intimidation.
Baldwin said he “could not nullify the jury’s verdict” by considering any sort of ethnic or racial components during sentencing, since the jury acquitted the teens of such crimes.
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