Constitution’s Limits Are Justice

* Re “Slain Officer’s Family Is Still Awaiting Justice,” Dec. 16 column by Jerry Hicks:

The victim’s family rightly feels anger that it takes so long for the sentence to be carried out. However, the anger shouldn’t be directed at the killer, his attorney or the courts.

The appeals, after all, are to assure that no innocent person is ever executed. Even the most hidebound prosecutor would agree with that.

Government actions, of which capital punishment is surely one, are limited by our Constitution.

If the cops had made a valid arrest and the prosecutor and judge stayed within the bounds of the Constitution, the legally required appeals would have found no errors.

In this case, had the prosecutors been more forthright with the evidence, John George Brown would have been executed years ago. Hiding the evidence is what has prolonged the pain of Officer Donald Reed’s family.

If we demand that our officials perform their duties in accordance with the Constitution, we wouldn’t be seeing the problems within police departments around the country today.

In addition, each time the constitutionality of the actions of authorities is challenged, it is our rights, yours and mine, that are being preserved.

RICHARD A. HEIN

Fullerton