Jury Verdicts in 2 Slayings

Yes, there are those who lack the heart it takes to confront the realities of life--and death--such as the juries involved in the murder trials of the Chinatown jewelry store robbery and killing of Officer Duane Johnson and the wounding of Officer Archie Nagao.

The first jury didn’t have the heart to give the death penalty to the killer of Johnson because of the killer’s young age at the time of the crime and because he was raised in a violent society of Vietnam (Metro, April 5). Well, that should give a lot of folks a good excuse to commit murder. Can you imagine how many people fit into this category? I guess the jury forgot about Johnson’s young age, his young wife’s age and the unborn daughter who would go through a lot of ages without her dad.

The second jury gave the accused mastermind of the robbery only a second-degree murder conviction because although the jewelry store owner, his son and witnesses said he was in the store at the time of the robbery, conflicting statements led them to believe he actually was only the getaway driver (Metro, April 12).

So what! I’ve seen drunk drivers convicted of manslaughter get the same penalty. But then the jury got confused by the judge’s instructions, so they felt they should go with the lesser penalty--nice going, folks.

Then to top this off, the defense attorney had the heart of a dead squid by saying she was in “seventh heaven” over the verdict. I doubt she will ever get that close. She said that all she wanted was “justice and justice was done.” Really pathetic. The only justice that was done was that the other two suspects were killed at the scene during the shoot-out.

Sorry, Abe, you can fool all the people all the time--you just have to take them in groups of 12.

GEORGE V. ALIANO

President

L.A. Police Protective League