After considerable pressure from Virginians of all political
persuasions who were more concerned with justice than legal formalities,
Johnathan Montgomery was released from prison recently after Virginia Gov. Bob
McDonnell issued a conditional pardon.[1]
In 2008, Montgomery, then 14, was convicted of molesting a
10-year-old girl. When Montgomery’s accuser recanted her story, Montgomery
“became” an innocent man wrongfully accused of a crime he didn’t commit.
Knowing this, Virginia’s Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli
still rejected Circuit Judge Randolph West’s order exonerating Montgomery and
voiding the last two years of his sentence, claiming that such an order is void
under the laws of the commonwealth.[2]
Is it any wonder why lawyers are stereotyped in the manner that they are?
McDonnell, on the other hand, having only political capital
to gain from releasing an innocent man from jail, released Montgomery in time
to have Thanksgiving dinner with his father in North Carolina.
When a convicted individual is found to be innocent, legal
formalities should go by the wayside and at the very least, a conditional
pardon should be granted like the one issued by Gov. McDonnell.
It is a perverted form of reasoning to suppose that the
legal system in America will crumble if timely procedures are not followed in
order to let a wrongfully convicted individual immediately free.
To use the clichéd example: slavery was once legal in
Virginia. Thus, laws can be wrong and in cases such as Montgomery’s, should be
circumvented to preserve the authority of our country’s legal system.
Hats off to Gov. McDonnell for making the right decision to
release Montgomery. This is not a partisan issue, it’s an issue that cuts deep
into the heart of what makes America the country that it is.
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