Gestation period for injustice

Gestation period for injustice

Here are some of the things foR which you could spend nine months behind bars in the state of Ohio:

Stealing a credit card, a check or even a vehicle license plate, which are fifth-degree felonies.

Stealing a car or a truck or embezzling more than $5,000, which are fourth-degree felonies.

Or, in Mahoning County, you could drag someone to death with your car — even if you drove away from a fast-food drive-in lane after being told there was a body in your undercarriage. Had you done the right thing and stopped, who knows what charges you may have faced when police arrived and secured the scene. But by driving off, dumping the body two blocks away and laying low for a couple of days during which you hired a top-notch lawyer, you’d be treated no more harshly than a car thief.

How it workED

At least that’s how it would turn out if you were Bryce D. Burke, 28, of Canfield. After turning yourself in, you’d plea to failure to stop after an accident resulting in death. You’d face three years in prison, but prosecutors would agree not to oppose your release after nine months.

Burke’s lenient treatment at the hands of Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge James C. Evans continues to shock and amaze. The willingness of the Mahoning County prosecutor’s office to enter into a plea bargain that allowed such a travesty of justice continues to confound. And the unsuccessful plea by Rosemary Culp, the mother of the victim, 22-year-old Andrew Culp, that Burke not be given early release from prison should continue to haunt everyone involved: “I mean no disrespect to anyone in this courtroom, but honestly, your honor, would a nine-month sentence be considered justice if this were your child? ... Let [Burke] serve his three years in prison.”

Such civility in the face of injustice is a rare thing. If only the ability of some criminals and their lawyers to game the system in Mahoning County were half as rare.