[ OUR OPINION ]
Don’t send armed robber
to service in Iraq
|
Rodrigues was found guilty in March 2002 of burglary, first-degree robbery and kidnapping. He faces a mandatory prison term of 20 years and, under Hawaii law, could be sentenced to a life term because of his commission of two or more felonies. His sentencing was delayed while Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall prepared written findings and defense attorney William Harrison tried to find evidence of his client's innocence.
Free on $75,000 bail, Rodrigues, a specialist with the 29th Infantry Brigade, was activated last week for up to 18 months and scheduled for deployment in Iraq after completing training in Hawaii and Fort Bliss, Texas. Harrison says his client may be considered AWOL if he shows up for sentencing and could be arrested by civilian authorities if he doesn't. Crandall will rule Monday whether to delay his sentencing until he returns from Iraq.
The Hawaii National Guard subscribes to a view widely held in legal circles and embraced by Harrison that a defendant is not "convicted" until sentencing. Conviction of a felony normally results in discharge from the armed services. The military judge advocate general is being asked for an opinion about what to do with Rodrigues.
The delay in formalizing convictions is supposed to provide the judge an opportunity to overturn a jury's misguided verdict. In Rodrigues' case, Crandall presided over a non-jury trial and may be asked to reverse her own verdict, a highly unlikely scenario unless Harrison is able to provide extraordinary new evidence that his client is innocent. Meanwhile, city Deputy Prosecutor Russell Uehara says he has found a 19-year-old ruling by the state Supreme Court that says guilt takes effect at the rendering of a verdict at trial, not at sentencing.
In Joseph Heller's classic novel, "Catch 22," Captain Yossarian was advised that a World War II fighter pilot could get out of flying more missions by proving he was crazy. The catch was that if he didn't want to fly more missions, he must be sane and, therefore, had to keep flying. "That's some catch, that Catch-22," Yossarian observed, to which Doc Daneeka responded, "It's the best there is."
Harrison says Rodrigues faces a similar problem, but this works both ways. Sending a convicted felon to duty because of a technical catch in the wake of a report about military abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison would be the height of craziness -- the worst there is.
