We all know that California has one of the most lenient judicial systems in the nation.  At the federal level, the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals (located in San Francisco) has more cases overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court than any other federal appeals court due to the liberal slant they place on almost every decision.  At the state level, sentences are remarkably lenient.

The most recent example of this laxity in sentencing is the case of Kathleen Soliah.  In 1975 this former member of the terrorist group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, placed bombs under police cars in an attempt to kill police offers in retaliation for the deaths of some of their members.  Fortunately the bombs didn’t go off.  She also participated in a bank robbery in that same year which resulted in the death of Myrna Opsahl, an innocent bystander.  Soliah was charged with second degree murder for that crime and was also charged with attempted murder in the bombing attempt.

Soliah ran like the true coward she is and moved out of the country with her new husband, a St. Paul, Minnesota physician.  She changed her name to Sara Jane Olson, and eventually ended up in St. Paul.  She had children and played the roles of mother, good neighbor, and community actress.  After appearing on America’s Most Wanted, the police were finally able to nab this terrorist coward.  All of her leftist friends were aghast, either because they didn’t believe she was really a terrorist or because they agreed with her actions and thought she didn’t deserve any punishment.

Once returned to California for trial, she initially denied her true identity.  After the lie would no longer stand, she confessed to her identity but continued to portray herself as innocent of the charges of attempted murder and bank robbery.  The lenient California court initially sentenced her to a little over five years for the bomb plot.  Only after many hearings did they agree to sentence her to additional (although consecutive) time, resulting in a total of 14 years for both the bombing attempt and the bank robbery.  That was later reduced by a year or so.  With good behavior, she would have had to only serve seven years.  Seven years for attempted murder of police officers and participation in a robbery that led to murder.

That is California.  Unfortunately it is also all too similar to sentences being meted out across the country.

There is one ray of hope in this otherwise pathetic story.  On March 17, California corrections officials released Soliah after only a total of six years.  She was at the airport with her husband when the police and corrections officers stopped by to take her back to prison where she belongs.  They informed her that there was an error in calculating her sentence and she has to serve the additional one year rightfully due.  Soliah, her husband, and all of their leftist friends and sympathizers are not happy. 

The fact that a terrorist is given only seven years of served time for terrorist crimes is abominable.  The fact that she finds it unfair that she has to serve even those seven years is ridiculous.  It is expected although amazing that Soliah’s legal team is appealing her return to prison.  According to the Minneapolis StarTribune (Curt Brown, 3/26/08), her lawyers are saying that she was “snatched…in the dark of night” by authorities.  (Actually she was allowed to stay with her mother that might before being taken back to prison the next day.)  Her lawyers also claim that her “sudden return to custody may have caused lasting psychological damage”.

What about the psychological damage done to the family of the woman murdered in that bank robbery?!

The fact that Soliah has so many sympathizers who agree with her is truly amazing.  One letter writer to the Minneapolis StarTribune (3/25/08) wrote the following:  “…perhaps Jon Opsahl might consider that his mother, who was killed in the bank robbery Olson (i.e., Soliah) helped commit, might want her to live a happy life, to see her children, to love her husband.  If he would do some research, he might see how others have been able to forgive in very difficult circumstances.”  The letter writer, H. Beth Labreche (the name says it all doesn’t it!), must be on something stronger than green tea.  Another female letter writer, Mary Ellen Kaluza, wrote in the same edition of the newspaper that “we must not tolerate this gross abuse of power by law enforcement and corrections officials.  The analogy to fascism by Olson’s attorneys is not an exaggeration.” 

These two very pathetic people are just an example of what is happening to America.  These people do not believe in accountability.  As long as it fits their ideology, they expect people to forgive those who have done nothing to earn forgiveness.  For them, killing cops and innocent women is just fine as long as it is for “the cause”.  That cause is the overthrow of America through communism, and worse, anarchy.

And these are the people many want to elect to the highest offices in the land.  Damn!

(Some of the material in this commentary was supported by an article in the Minneapolis StarTribune by Dan Browning (3/24/08).