[The New York Times clipping: Justice bashed] Part: 1 of 2
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THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1988
ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER, Publisher
ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER JR., Deputy Publisher
MAX FRANKEL, Executive Editor
ARTHUR GELB, Managing Editor
JAMES L. GREENFIELD, Assistant Managing Editor
WARREN HOGE, Assistant Managing Editor
JOHN M. LEE, Assistant Managing Editor
ALLAN M. SIEGAL, Assistant Managing Editor
JACK ROSENTHAL, Editorial Page Editor
LESLIE H. GELB, Deputy Editorial Page Editor
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LANCE R. PRIMIS, President
J. A. RIGGS JR., Exec. VP, Manufacturing
HOWARD BISHOW, Sr. VP, Operations
RUSSELL T. LEWIS, Sr. VP, Production
ERICH G. LINKER JR., Sr. VP, Advertising
JOHN M. O'BRIEN, Sr. VP, Finance & Human Resources
ELISE J. ROSS, Sr. VP, SystemsJustice Bashed Toj
A Texas prosecutor thought a life sentence
was appropriate for 18-year-old Richard Lee Bed-
narski, convicted of killing two Dallas men. That's T
hardly out of line in a state that leads the nation in Tin
executions and where judges commonly impose
prison terms in the hundreds of years. Far more
shocking was the behavior of Judge Jack Hampton, who
decided on a more modest 30 years, for an impermissible
reason: the two dead men were homosexuals.
Evidence showed that Mr. Bednarski and some
friends, out to "pester the homosexuals," were picked up
by two men on a street corner and driven to a secluded
area. There Mr. Bednarski ordered the two men to re-
move their clothes. When they refused, Mr. Bednarski
shot and killed them.
The judge blamed the victims, saying they wouldn't
have been killed "if they hadn't been cruising the streets
picking up teen-age boys." He said he put prostitutes and
gays at about the same level "and I'd be hard put to give
somebody life for killing a prostitute."
Whatever the case for leniency, Judge Hampton
needed only one mitigating factor, the life style of the vic-
tims. Texans who defend capital punishment on grounds
that lesser sanctions cheapen life might now think about
how to cleanse their courts of judges who thus cheapen
both life and justice.30 Y'
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Founded in 1851
ADOLPH S. OCHS, Publisher 1896-1935
ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER, Publisher 1935-1961
ORVIL E. DRYFOOS, Publisher 1961-1963pics
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The New York Times. [The New York Times clipping: Justice bashed], clipping, December 20, 1988; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc916940/m1/1/: accessed June 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.