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Jones will sit in cell, Bonds and Rocket won't
By Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin January 12, 2008 |
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SAN FRANCISCO--You know you have to feel sorry for Marion Jones, and looking at Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens is a good example. There is an excellent article by Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle titled, “move over Barry, Roger now Baseball's Biggest Jerk". If you read the article last week it was a great and humorous article. There were some good facts on Clemens and Bonds, but going back to Jones you have to feel sorry for her you wonder and this is where money plays a part in the legal system and this is one of my objections to the legal system. This is where the legal system plays a part you wonder if Jones had the money that Bonds and Clemens has would she have served that sentence because she didn't have the money and obviously she couldn't fight it. In Bonds’ case he's spending millions for a defense team and of course he has the money to do it with of course he's always claiming poor mouth if he's poor there is a lot more of us that are in far worse shape than he is. Would Marion Jones have had a fair defense had she had the funds for a defense team? Would she have had the benefit of the doubt or a lesser sentence if she had a better defense like the one Bonds has. Judge Kenneth Karas who made the decision to incarcerate Jones for six months and gave her two years probation said that Jones got this sentence because, "this is a strong argument that incarceration may make others think twice and show that no one is above the legal obligation to tell the truth," said Karas. Jones will be locked up for lying to federal officials about steroid use and also check fraud. In U.S. Federal Court this is a higher level decision than you would get in state court and not to be derogatory on the state level and there are some very fine judges but the Feds carry more weight and most people have more fear of the federal court because of the weight they carry as opposed to the California State Court. The conviction rate is higher and the U.S. court staff gets a higher salary so there fore they have more resources than the State. Judge Karas was sincere and believed he handed out the right sentence to Jones and the fact that she lied to the feds on the check fraud and perjured herself regarding steroid use. So therefore that's the penalty Marion Jones will pay. Steroids investigation department in baseball: We are very cynical about baseball particularly Commissioner Bud Selig who was forced into having a steroids investigation department and there might be some sincerity on his part. The big stumbling block will be with the players union and they have done everything possible to eliminate such a department or investigation department. It is a step in the right direction and the public wants the players to go out and perform and if you break a record it should be done under legal conditions. If you want the playing field to be fair and not someone to go ahead and purchase items to help him to break records that won't be fair we have people who look at some of these accomplishments in baseball such as Rafael Palmero's 3,000 hits, Barry Bonds all time home run record, and Roger Clemens Cy Young Awards, there are people who still look at Hank Aaron as the number one home run king. Aaron did it legitimately and there is the man who did it on his own merit. Bonds is kind of a joke, yeah he's a great player and if didn't get suspected of using steroids he would be going to the Hall of Fame but in reality without getting help he would not have broken the home run record. The idea to have a steroids investigation department in MLB is a step in the right direction. Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin are covering the BALCO/steroids scandal and co-host Sportstalk on 1690 KFSG Sacramento. |
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