Another Guilty Plea and Two More Years on His Sentence

Richard Scruggs pled guilty to more crimes yesterday in Aberdeen, Mississippi. He will serve 7 years but the time will be concurrent so his total prison time will be 7 years. Maybe he will qualif for some sort of parole. Maybe not. If he serves the full 7 years he will be out when he is about 69 years old.

The pictures of Mr. Scruggs yesterday seemed to show that prison had brought about great changes in him. He was thin. Gaunt even, a person who had obviously been going through dramatic changes. Yet, in a way, it seemed as though he was a man in process, a man who was evolving from something he was into something new. Looking close one could tell prison and the changes he was undergoing, the punishment he was experiencing, was having a positive effect.

Perhaps for the first time he was beginning to see something he had only seen from afar. Was it the look of defeat that I saw? Maybe, but only in a worldly sense. Instead, I think I saw a person for whom a light was beginning to shine and was going to light up his soul.

Law and lawyering in America today is a sad business. The success some think they experience is not real.