DeLorean, Victim of the System?

Many serious questions have been raised concerning the events surrounding the trial of John Z. DeLorean. Richard Moran’s suggestion (Editorial Pages, Dec. 23), “DeLorean, a Victim of the System?” that such a festival of extravagance indicates a need to restructure the entire criminal justice system, however, is as silly as was most of the sensationalist coverage of the DeLorean trial itself.

Moran appears to have confused DeLorean’s importance in the media hype surrounding the trial with DeLorean’s role in the case itself. Those with a People magazine view of the case may believe DeLorean was the only defendant who mattered. In fact, he was involved in a complicated law enforcement operation, one in which several major drug traffickers were sentenced to long prison terms after pleading guilty to serious crimes. Whatever the shortcomings of the case involving DeLorean may have been, we ought not lose sight of the accomplishments that were part of the same effort.

A person with serious proposals for criminal justice reform would have provided an analysis of the system as a whole and an indication of the proposed reform’s general effects. To rely only on one of the most unusual trials in history as a basis for changing the system is foolhardy.

NEIL S. KRAMER Los Angeles