Kwame Kilpatrick
A lot of interesting things have happened on Oct. 10 over the years. The Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs in the 1945 World Series. Ho Chi Minh entered Hanoi after French troops pulled out in 1954. And Lee Harvey Oswald signed the guest book in a Helsinki hotel in 1959.
This year, on Oct. 10, history will be made in Detroit, when Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit’s 68th mayor, is sentenced at 10 a.m. by U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds for his public corruption convictions.
It won’t be an easy decision for the judge. Undoubtedly, before she decides on a just sentence, she’ll consult with some of her colleagues on the bench. Judges do that in some instances.
What’s too much? What’s too little? What’s just right? The government has already indicated that it will be pushing for 20 years or more. The defense will argue that’s far too excessive.
I say 15 years is just right.
Corrupted the Office
To give less would ignore the fact Kilpatrick corrupted the office of mayor, acted like a mob boss and fleeced taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars by helping steer lucrative city contracts to his good buddy, Bobby Ferguson, who was also convicted of racketeering and corruption. Ferguson will also be sentenced on Oct. 10, after Kilpatrick.
Who knows what good that stolen money could have done? Improved schools. Put more cops on the streets. Saved some lives. Removed blighted homes and businesses.
As the trial showed, besides steering contracts to Ferguson, Kilpatrick sent his bagmen to pick up bribes. And like a true mob boss, his staff had to cough up cash for birthdays and Christmas.
I have to say, last March, as a I sat listening to the final arguments by federal prosecutor Michael Bullotta, I was getting angry, listening to all of Kilpatrick’s crimes laid out for jurors to digest. It was overwhelming. It was disgusting.
What is Justice?
That being said, we can’t lose sight of what the justice system is all about: Punishing, teaching a lesson, sending a message, and then letting people go free once they’ve served out a fair sentence, with an emphasis on “fair.”
Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was shaking down people for campaign contributions, and who tried to sell President Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, got 14 years in prison. I thought that was a pretty stiff sentence.
Ex-New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson, whose case I covered from start to finish, got 13 years for using his Congressional position to sell technology to African nations through a company in which he had a financial interest. He was the guy who stashed $90,000 in his freezer that happened to be marked FBI bills.
The Kilpatrick prosecution, in arguing for a much tougher sentence, is likely to point to Ohio’s ex-Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, who was sentenced last year at age 57 in federal court in Akron to 28 years in prison for racketeering and bribery. In Dimora’s world, his influence was for sale. Frank Russo, the former Cuyahoga auditor, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2010 after he admitted that he and cohorts accepted more than $1 million in bribes and kickbacks, partied with co-conspirators' money and used his influence to get friends jobs and county contracts.
In a League With Other Crooks
Unquestionably, Kilpatrick is in that league. Still, at age 43, 15 years for Kilpatrick sends a clear message and amounts to a pretty tough punishment. He’ll miss seeing his kids grow up. His marriage in all likelihood will dissolve. After all, Kilpatrick cheated on his wife Carlita. What are the chances of her remaining loyal for 15 years? And once he's free, in his 60s, any real career will be tough to build.
There’s also costs to taxpayers. It costs about $29,000 a year, on the average, to house a federal prisoner. For 15 years, that’s $435,000. Another five years would cost at least $145,000, and that’s not calculating inflation over the next two decades.
Surely, if the judge feels the need to punish him beyond 15 years, she should look at some alternatives outside of prison, perhaps teaching ex-felons, or working at a food bank or homeless shelter.
I don’t want to see the government dish out any more than it has to for a man who stole from such an impoverished city.
Plus, a 15-year sentence would actually show some compassion, something Kilpatrick never had for the city he stole from.
