Submitted by Nora Renzulli, Apr 4, 2007 10:21

Congressman Charles Rangel suggested equalizing sacrifice in wartime by instituting a universal draft. One underlying reason was ostensibly to up the ante and raise the level of responsible debate about who risks life and death in service to our country. It would obviously heighten the stakes for everyone before war could be declared. It would no longer be just somebody else's risk of life and limb. Along analogous lines, I suggest reevaluating who is eligible for the death penalty. When we inflict society's greatest condemnation, the death penalty, shouldn't we equalize these most lethal consequence for crime, not just to multiple homicide convicts, but also to corrupt judges. There are murderers of bodies and murderers of souls--judges who traffic in human children and take them away from a fit and loving parent in exchange for a bribe from the other parent fits my bill of a murderer of soul. Which crime is more heinous? Do neither or both deserve the death penalty? If Queens DA Brown wishes that we focus on the ultimate retribution for serious crime, my modest proposal is to let the Legislature ratchet up the punishment for offenses like the ones for which Judge Gerald Garson is charged -- the domestic relations equivalent to human trafficking in the souls of children. Let our lawmakers in Albany emulate the ancient Romans who assigned the death penalty for judges found guilty of accepting a bribe. News reports say that the custody of the children of Abraham and Sigal Levy is still not settled. How can that be four years after Garson's arrest? Why is timely justice and healing for the innocent victims of this monstrosity given such short shrift by the court system? Why is the majority of media attention weighted toward the sensationalism of the crime and the non captial punishment that our society may ultimately serve up for this corrupt attempted parentectomy and the utter judicial and attorney contempt for the rights of the innocent victims of our system of justice? Haven't the children and their mother in the Levy case suffered enough? Going by the media rule, if it bleeds, it leads, I think your readers are capable of seeeing how the souls of these children and their mother are bleeding. Can't the administrative leadership of the court system see it too and step up to the plate to mitigate the emotional, psychological and financial harm and damage to the victims who have endured now years and years of open wounds at the hands of a court system that allowed a Simonovsky and Garson to flount the appearance of impropriety and the ethical code with years of fine dining for an appointer with the tab picked up by the appointee. Did no one in authority in the court system notice the showy staging of the Garson-crafted public perception of power? Surely the Inspector General does not need to wait until the jury returns to catch up on mitigating the damage of the enormity of the cumulative ethical misconduct--forget whether the Judge ends up with a 31 year prison term for the time being if convicted. The details of deliberate and intended theft of relationship under color of law cry out for full court press attention by the Office of Court Administration to mitigate the damage to the children and their mother. What ownership has the court system taken for assigning Judge Garson to the matrimonial part to begin with? Did they think he would do less harm there? What ownership has the court system taken for approving Paul Simonovsky for law guardian assignments? Are they doing anything to promote healing of the court-inflicted wounds to the victims in the most humane and effective way possible. I hope the Governor and the Legislature are reading this because the Office of Court Administration needs a Superfund to assess and offset the risk and damage to the children's emotional futures and their prospects for healthy parent/child relationships or a modicum of emotional health as adults given this endless and corrupt litigation. The continuing harm from the toxic Brooklyn-style Love Canal malfeasance and misconduct courtesy of identifiable members of the matrimonial bench and bar needs to be named, claimed and dealt with by responsible parties within the Unified Court System immediately or they should explain why not.

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