Patsy Brumfield of the Journal reports on today’s events in the just-us-justice system of Mississippi.
Timothy Balducci and Steven Patterson will do prison time, despite their cooperation into the infamous conspiracy to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey of Calhoun City.
Their sentences were set today by Senior U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. today at the federal courthouse in Oxford.
• Balducci, formerly of New Albany, will serve 24 months in prison. Balducci was given no fine, because records showed he could not pay one.
• Patterson of New Albany will serve 24 months in prison. Patterson was also given a $150,000 fine.
Justice or just-us-justice? It’s really hard for me to say – not for lack of thought or thought-provoking comment from others here on the blog and off-blog as well. However, there often is a difference between justice as commonly defined and the sometimes just-us-justice here – a difference that is one of the many that make Mississippi the “State of Paradox”.
We’ve birthed the blue; performed the first successful heart transplant: and, bottled the firt coca-cola – but even considering USA v Scruggs and all its implications, we are better people in a better place with a better legal system than that of our past. Some would disagree but none could argue the point with fact.
Lack of fact has never been a barrier for the low-literate but language-rich story-telling population of the “State of Paradox”. Here, the direct descendants of the first Mr. Right (fn:Always) and his Mrs. (nee Promise you-won’t-tell-another-living-soul But) have informed and entertained for generations. In doing so, these story-tellers have defined and devined how the outside world views Mississippi and distorted the outside world to those here.
Just-us-justice established the practice of selective disgrace during a period in the history of the “State of Paradox” when it was not disgraceful for one man to own another – just doing business. As the then wealth of the State evolved into generational poverty, people began to trade on favor – a transaction that makes one man’s word another man’s bondage with the ever present threat of public disgrace from a legal flogging. Continue reading “Mississippi’s just us justice – final”