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Editorial: True justice requires prison terms that stick
It’s good to hear that Morris “Mel” Goldberg has rehabilitated himself. That’s considerable progress since nine years ago, when he said he wouldn’t hesitate to participate in the killing of his late son-in-law if he had it to do over.
Rehabilitated or not, Goldberg needs to stay behind bars for the full 26-plus years of the reduced sentence he received following a successful appeal.
That’s the Washington state Clemency and Pardons Board’s recommendation, and unless Gov. Chris Gregoire uncharacteristically ignores the board, that’s the way it will be.
It’s the right decision, especially in the wake of Maurice Clemmons’ police-killing rampage in Parkland, Wash. The public simply needs some assurance that the justice system keeps its promises.
In 1991, Goldberg drove the getaway car for his ex-wife, Joann Peterson, after she ambushed Peter Zeihen with a shotgun. The couple attempted to rationalize their murder plot on the assertion – never substantiated by police or child welfare investigators – that Zeihen had sexually abused their granddaughter and they feared he might gain custody of her in a divorce proceeding.
It was 2000 before he was charged, tried and convicted, and then only because Goldberg’s children came forward with incriminating information they’d kept secret. Eventually, a jury decided Goldberg should be sentenced to life in prison without parole. On appeal, however, the state Supreme Court concluded that the trial court judge put too much pressure on the jury, so it reduced his sentence to 320 months.
That “without parole” phrase makes cynics scoff. They know about offenders like Clemmons, whose 95-year sentence in Arkansas was commuted. In the interest of public safety and justice, they want the certainty and finality that only execution brings.
Death penalty cases are more costly to the public than lifetime imprisonment, but they leave no doubts about the offender returning to kill again. For society to wean itself from capital punishment, the criminal justice system needs to make it clear that life in prison means life in prison. Or that, as in Goldberg’s case, 320 months means 320 months.
In petitioning for a pardon, Goldberg, now 78, insisted he is self-reformed and dealing with health issues.
Wisely, the Clemency and Pardons Board wasn’t biting.