Way to go, Kansas Supreme Court.
It was announced recently that the state’s high court had reversed a Shawnee County District Court judge decision that would have imposed “a reduced sentence on a man convicted of having sex with two children,” according to an Associated Press report.
At issue was the case of Harold Dean Spencer, 75. Spencer pled guilty in 2008 to “two charges of having sex with the children.”
In reaction, Judge Matthew Dowd — who has since retired — departed from mandatory minimum sentencing and put the confessed child abuser on three years probation.
Spencer will appear before another judge for sentencing.
There is nothing that sentencing can do to change what these children were put through.
There is nothing in the way of punishment that can be inflicted under our system that will bring healing to this family beyond what they have hopefully already found in the years since Spencer entered his guilty plea.
But for the sake of justice in this state, it is appropriate that the high court is calling for action in this case.
No matter what the extenuating circumstances, someone who has abused to children should not be allowed to go free, even with probation.
People need to know, you won’t get away with that in Kansas, as the Kansas Supreme Court has made clear.
— Chuck Smith