Retribution for Criminals

In her June 25 column (“Turning Justice Upside Down for Kathleen Soliah”), Patt Morrison ridicules the fact that Soliah, a former Symbionese Liberation Army member and fugitive, is scheduled to be extradited to face criminal charges relating to violent actions in which she allegedly participated 24 years ago. Morrison remarks, “Maybe American justice was dramatically altered while I was out in the kitchen getting a snack, but if I’m not mistaken the chief goal of punishment is still rehabilitation.”

The California criminal justice system abandoned the rehabilitative model more than 20 years ago. Our justice system is now founded in considerable part on concepts of retribution (just deserts) and incapacitation (putting supposedly dangerous persons away and throwing away the key).

It may be assumed from what we read that Soliah is no longer a danger to the community, but that still leaves the issue of retribution. Retributive theory suggests that a person should be held accountable for her actions and that the community has the right to expect her to pay a penalty for her misdeeds, if they are proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

A wise prosecutor, it strikes me, would want to treat Soliah’s alleged conduct as serious, no less serious just because a quarter-century has passed. A sensible prosecutor might decide, after investigation, that Soliah should be permitted to plead guilty to some offense, thereby relieving the victims and herself of the cloud that has hovered over them these many years. And, a sensible criminal justice system (alas, not necessarily ours) would find a way to denounce the criminal actions and yet permit Soliah to return to her family in relatively short order. But there needs to be such a process.

PROF. JOSHUA DRESSLER

McGeorge School of Law

Sacramento