It’s hard for us to keep up on the news during the summer with so many distractions: the shore, the mountains, the Phillies. But there were some news stories that we didn’t miss, and Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter’s sentencing of former state Sen. Vincent Fumo was one of them.
Although we expected public expressions of disagreement with the sentence in the media, we were surprised by the personal attacks leveled against the judge, including those contained in an editorial in this paper Aug. 14 headlined “Some Judges Understand the Evil of Corruption, Some Don’t Have a Clue.” It was painful to see a well-respected judge who has devoted his career to public service, first in Lancaster County and then in the federal judiciary, disrespectfully and unfairly described in these pages as a “poster boy … for anyone who thinks corrupt public officials get preferential treatment.” In addition, some of the comments from our own legal community were contrary to our clear obligation to demonstrate and promote respect for the integrity of the justice system.
