Adding Insult to Injury

After reading “The Wrong of Wright’s Close Aide” (by Ken Ringle, the Washington Post, May 5), all I can say is, crime does pay--if you know the right people.

Incredible that so bloodily brutal a crime, committed by a confessed and convicted would-be killer who was judged sane at the time--(that he) could get off with less than 27 months in a Fairfax County jail and then be paroled to a job as staff assistant in the congressional office of Rep. Jim Wright. Wright’s daughter was married to the assailant’s brother, which explains the “highly unusual treatment.”

To add insult to injury is the fact that most of the lawmakers consider his heinous crime a mere “mistake” and if he were let go, “members would be lined up to hire him” because of his competence. Whatever happened to justice and morals?

“Rightly or wrongly,” says House Majority Whip Tony Coelho, “under our system of law John Mack owed his debt to society, not to this young woman.”

This young woman who was hammered, cut, sliced and stabbed repeatedly, then left for dead (after which her attacker went to the movies) is owed no debt? If the brute gave every cent of his undeserved salary to his victim, he could never repay her for the pain, suffering and mental anguish she endured at his hands. I wonder if Coelho would feel the same if it had been his daughter so viciously attacked.

SHIRLEY WOLF

Santa Monica