"On Tuesday, voters decided to ditch Dean,"

not really. The voters didn't decide anything about individual judges. They voted party, like they always have. In 1980 the demographics cleaned out some good judges and some not so good judges, because of their Republican Tag. Tuesday the same thing happened. Some very good judges got tossed out. I knew Keith Dean as a prosecutor. He was a very decent and fair guy.

I didn't watch the story, but the characterization above of "stealing two bucks at gunpoint in 1990." really belies the fact taht the amount stolen has nothing to do with the severity of an offense of sticking a gun in someone's face to steal money from them. there are lots of times I have two bucks in my pocket and if someone threatens to kill me for it (which is what sticking a gun in someone's face IS), then I'd take that pretty freakin serious.

I should add I think Mark Stoltz will be a good judge, he's a good and experienced lawyer. I'm not taking anything away from him.

Bill,

...and how seriously should we take the offense of murdering a prostitute?

very, of course. My point isn't that there wasn't disparity in sentencing or that it wasn't unfair, If you take the stories at face value, which I don't know enough about to do, it certainly seems unfair. My point is more that
1. that robbery is a serious crime, no matter how much money was involved and 2. that the result of the election has nothing to do with these stories, every Republican judge in the county in a contested election was defeated. It's really not accurate to say it had anything to do with any specific thing about any of them.

Well Bill, I think you should view the tape of the 20/20 show or read the article. No one said it wasn't a serious offense, no said there shouldn't have been a punishment. The problem is when favoritism plays a huge part in how punishment is dished out. I guess I shouldn't comment to you really when you aren't aware of the facts of the two stories. The fact that keith dean was removed is a huge blessing....PERIOD!And he is NOt a fair and decent guy! he is coward who replaced his white sheet with a black robe!!!!!!

Is the fact that this judge issued an unfair sentence proof that he is with the Klan? Let's check his history for more than one case before we go there. But certainly this story raises the race issue. It boils down to this for me;
CASE #1; The black guy committed armed robbery, gets probation, violated probation then went to prison for life after being caught smoking a joint.

CASE #2; The white guy committed murder, gets probation, violated probation between 2 to 5 times including smoking CRACK!, and is still free.

On any level, that is just unfair.