Waste of Money

I read your editorial titled “Shared Tragedy” (March 15). In it you say that the Penn trial is a tragedy shared by the black community and the Police Department. But really the retrial is a tragedy shared by everyone in the county.

The district attorney is wasting $1 million on a case he could not win a year ago and in which there has been nothing new to help him.

That million dollars comes from the pockets of everyone.

The expenditure of the million dollars for the trial means that the wrecks will not be picked up from the highways, the new jail is just a little further from being accomplished, the sheriff will take a little longer to react to a crime, the parks will be a little more littered, and so on.

The million dollars could be so much better spent on so many other things than sending a man to prison for a couple of years. But even then, since 12 other people could not see any reason for sending Penn up, why will these people find him guilty?

CLARENCE HALL

Escondido