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LATEST LETTERS

Larry Manzanares

Tuesday, July 10 at 1:32 PM

Clair L. Beazer of Sterling writes:

It is another sad day in the Colorado Department of Corrections. Former Denver Judge Larry Manzanares has committed suicide. Now we, the inmates judged and found wanting by him, pray for his family and his soul.
At the same time we must take umbrage with the overwhelmingly sympathetic outrage expressed by his peers — for the most part successful people who profit, as he did, from an unfair system that all too often victimizes so many of the poor, the uneducated and the mentally ill.
We do not have Harvard degrees, connections or even the minimal resources needed to effectively challenge an unfair system only now decried by those who for so long found its workings wholly acceptable. We wonder where is the righteous outrage over the 25,000 corrections department inmates and their families? Where is the outrage about the 1,500 more, every year who are marginalized, disenfranchised and victimized by the unfair system that he worked in, profited from and contributed too?
The cold, hard truth is that Manzanares was both unwilling and unable to withstand the self-same scrutiny and judgment that he himself meted out and favored for 15 long years.
We inmates do pray for Manzanares because we know and acknowledge that he was somebody’s father, brother, lover, friend and child. We are aware that he was (and is) loved — sadly, a distinction not often afforded to us.

READER COMMENTS

Wow!!!!

Posted by on July 10, 2007 02:26 PM

Ummm... Claire, you're an inmate, so presumably you broke the law and are now being punished for it right? Are you saying that all of the inmates are innocent, or don;t deserve to be punished for their crimes?

Sorry, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. The system is flawed, but not because it locks criminals up.

Posted by JB on July 10, 2007 02:31 PM

can't say I agree with a lot of this, but a very eloquent letter (someone in the Pen has a lot better grasp of grammar & syntax than many on this site. No names, but pay attention fish & KW).

Posted by drew on July 10, 2007 02:40 PM

But she's right in that "justice" is skewed towards those with deep pockets or connections (can you say "Scooter").

Posted by drew on July 10, 2007 02:43 PM

Clair has a valid point...the wealthy rarely go to jail they just go to court. There are a few exceptions but not a whole lot!!

Posted by A on July 10, 2007 03:22 PM

The Rich pay for their crimes-but in cash instead of time served

Posted by on July 10, 2007 03:46 PM

oops, this took me a minute while I wiped the vomit from my keyboard.

Wow, it's a wonder what someone with a dictionary and enough time can spit out.

Let's see now, your release date is July 2009. Hmm, I wonder if you'll take those 2 (more) years to come up with a more fair system or figure out a way to compensate the victims of your crime. Probably not. Or maybe you'll get a degree, or work your tail off and do well enough to get into Harvard? No? While Judge Manzanares was working his tail off to get where he was, you were probably devising get rich quick schemes involving drugs or a gun.

From your letter it's clear that the rehabilitation aspect of incarceration hasn't worked in this case.

Take offense all you want. All we ask is that you don't commit any more offenses.

Posted by TheSheriff on July 10, 2007 04:24 PM

Hey, Sheriff, you didn't get all the vomit wiped up. A lot of it showed up in your post.

Posted by Truth on July 10, 2007 06:52 PM

Comon people...can't you tell that this letter it reeking full of sarcasm, tongue in cheek, and full of hidden messages? Inmates sentenced by Manzarares were eagerly waiting for him to join the system and engage in both psychological and or physical payback? This and other factor's more than likely were running through his head prior to his suicide.

Posted by Yaakov on July 10, 2007 09:07 PM

Best analysis of Judge Manzanares' suicide yet.....The inmates' anticipation of the Judge being where he's fair game may not have gotten a whole lot of media time,but I'm pretty sure it got a lot of thought from him.

Posted by Jimminy on July 10, 2007 10:41 PM

Drew,
Can you say Mark Rich?

Posted by on July 11, 2007 07:27 AM

Hey Truth, you must have done a good job on your cellmate to get use of the computer.

Posted by TheSheriff on July 11, 2007 09:17 AM

Clair says: "sadly, a distinction not often afforded to us." Nothing can preclude her from invoking the same distinction accorded Larry: The distinction is hers. What is good enough for Jesus and Larry is good enough for her. She won't be out killing or stealing husbands or robbing 7/11.

Deicide Corner: “This young fellow, who was possessed of most violent passions, which he with great difficulty can command, and of unbounded ambition, which he conceals perhaps, even to himself, has been seduced into that bigoted, illiberal system of religion, which, by professing vainly to follow purely the dictates of the Testament, in vain contradicts the whole doctrine of the New Testament, and destroys all the boundaries between good and evil, between right and wrong. But, like all the followers of that sect, his practise is at open variance with his theory. When I observe into what inconsistent absurdities those persons run who make speculative, metaphysical religion a matter of importance, I am fully determined never to puzzle myself in the mazes of religious discussion, to content myself with practising the dictates of God and reason so far as I can judge for myself.” -- John Q. Adams

Posted by Richard Grimes r22037@yahoo.com (ffrf.org and ask for copy of FreeThought Today on July 11, 2007 09:38 AM

How did TheSheriff know Beazer's release date? Who else is he investigating?

Posted by Jimminy on July 11, 2007 09:58 AM

The flaw is,as JB says,not that the system locks up criminals.The flaw is that it locks up the innocent and does not lock up criminals.

Posted by Jimminy on July 11, 2007 10:05 AM

7:27 - Yup - Mark Rich - Scooter's client.

Scooter-part of the president's inner circle
Mark Rich - not

Posted by drew on July 11, 2007 10:48 AM

Jimminy,

The sheriff may be James Jones.

Posted by on July 11, 2007 01:33 PM

Clair's letter reminds me of the scene in the movie "Shawshank Redemption" where Morgan Freeman's character explains with a wink and a nod that ALL the inmates in Shawshank prison are innocent.

Sorry Clair, but few on the outside believe our prisons are filled with innocents. Our justice system, imperfect as it is, is also completely necessary to protect the lives and property of the law-abiding majority from those few who choose a life of crime. The suicide of Larry Manzanares is a consequence of a deeply troubled mind, not an indictment of the justice system he served.

Posted by Karen on July 11, 2007 02:02 PM

1:33...Is that James "Drink the Kool-aid" Jones or James "Luke,I am your father" Jones?

Posted by Jimminy on July 11, 2007 03:08 PM

Hmmm.A justice system that gives the power of life and death to those of deeply troubled mind.Sounds indictable to me.

Posted by Jimminy on July 11, 2007 03:13 PM

Jimminy, Colorado law doesn't give the power of life and death to Judges. Only a jury of troubled minds gets to impose the death penalty. Is the system still indictable?

Please don't read RMN blogs for an impression of the jury pool before answering that.

Posted by TheSheriff on July 11, 2007 04:08 PM

And we know that you're in the position to properly relate the rules on the imposition of the death penalty;, and, look up someone's sentence (i.e., your 10 July, 04:24 PM post), don't we Sheriff...

Posted by carl on July 11, 2007 04:46 PM

carl, anyone is in that position.

That's what we love about the information superhighway and a little search engine called Google.

Posted by TheSheriff on July 11, 2007 05:11 PM

Kinda thinking about serial killer cop James Turney too.He got a paid vacation and a promotion for killing a child.Second child killing for ol'Jimbo. Now Lisl Auman,on the other hand,got felony murder and did 8 years for NOT killing a cop.
See,Sheriff,all us civilians know deep down that government is exempt from the law,and passes on that immunity to its agents,especially those in law enforcement,who are trained to be the biggest baddest kids on the block. So we're all very respectful-lotta "yes sir" going on there.....BUT when one of you(at least two people on this thread think you're a law guy)commits a crime and then takes the coward's way out,'cause he can't take what he was dishing up,well,a lot of us can't really gin up much sympathy.

Posted by Jimminy on July 11, 2007 10:19 PM

Oops! Shoulda said..."Government is exempt from the law and almost always passes on that immunity to its agents"....Sorry!

Posted by Jimminy on July 11, 2007 11:51 PM

oh come now jimminy....you're not going to advance a conspiracy theory now, are you? Conspiracies take way too much forethought and focus. People in government are not really focused on anyone in particular, they just pick people randomly to hassle in order to justify their employment and income.

I think we can all agree that there are bad apples in every basket...cops kill, priests rape, and goldilocks burglarized the three bears. In this case Beazer is clearly a bad apple, found guilty by a jury (unless he plead guilty), and serving (at least) two years. I doubt the Judge, or anyone else commiting a property crime of similar magnitude as a first offense, would serve 2 years.

I don't know why the Judge committed suicide, and no one does. We can guess all we want. I guess that the prospect of serving maybe 3 months, segregated from the general prison populace-which is what would happen-and losing one's career is not enough. Who knows what it was...but I do know this...Beazer's blame on the Judge or the system for his own criminal activity, lack of drive, ambition, or just plain guts, shouldn't be given a forum. He should be directing his attention to restoring whatever it was he took from his victims, instead of blaming the system for holding him accountable.

Posted by TheSheriff on July 12, 2007 08:43 AM

I have to agree with "The Sheriff's" point that Ms. Beazer's letter, albeit very well written, should be classified as a plaintive plea of "I'm innocent and was falsely convicted".

I would imagine that if polled you would hear a vast majority of the criminally incarcerated claim that they were innocent; they plead to a lesser charge because it's a corrupt system; or, I was framed and couldn't hire a "fancy attorney"; or, my public defender sold me out; ad infinitum.

The truth is, the vast majority of the incarcerated were guilty of the crimes that put them in prison. Are there innocent people falsely convicted? Of course; but, they remain the exception rather than the rule.

I don't know where Ms. Beazar's release date came from on this post, but it seems to reflect that she was convicted of more than a minor infraction, or this conviction was not the first. While she writes eloquently, perhaps she should be utilizing some of that intellect and ability in planning a productive future once released and accept the punishment received for past illegal transgressions.

Posted by darfor on July 12, 2007 09:14 AM

Beazer is a "he" and his info. used to be on one of those "pen-pals for inmates" websites. I found it when his letter was published. It's gone now. He must have deleted it apparently because he "is both unwilling and unable to withstand the self-same scrutiny that he himself meted out and favored" in his letter.

Posted by Frankie on July 12, 2007 10:47 AM

J..3:08
Kool-Aide.

Posted by on July 12, 2007 10:53 AM