An assistant U.S. District Attorney put into words during the sentencing of a bank robber with a frightening criminal background what many have been thinking or saying all along: Georgia’s judicial system leaves much to be desired.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Rafferty underscored that point when urging U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood to sentence convicted bank robber James McCormick to federal prison for a long time. He noted that McCormick had been in and out of state prison before Georgia’s judicial system gave him the opportunity to scare a bank teller in Brunswick half to death with a fake bomb. McCormick had just been released from state prison after serving time for the murder of a man in Glynn County.
In seeking a long sentence, which he got, Assistant District Attorney Rafferty said, “I’ve learned a life sentence in the state of Georgia is a fiction. It was a fiction then and it’s a fiction now. He is a menace, and someone at the state will see fit to parole him again.”
He’s right. The state is doing its best to explain to the public why closing prisons, reducing Georgia’s prison space and paroling inmates at a rapid pace is in the best interest of everyone. It’s in someone’s best interest all right — the criminals’. It’s all about saving money, not law-abiding individuals and families from thieves, drug addicts or even murderers.

— Online: www.thebrunswicknews.com