Freeway Ricky sentence reduced

This pap from the Mercury News is really irritating.

Notorious crack kingpin "Freeway" Ricky Ross could be out of prison in two years after a judge cut 3 1/2 years off his sentence, his defense attorney said.

His life sentence was reduced to 20 years when his lawyer successfully argued his priors should be combined for the purposes of sentencing. Ross, as you may remember was featured prominently in Gary Webb's expose, Dark Alliance. The Merc remembers it as well, but rather badly.

Ross' case was profiled in a series of reports in 1996 in the San Jose Mercury News, which linked the CIA to drug dealers assisting the Contras.

A federal probe found no such link. The Mercury News ultimately concluded that said the series contained serious flaws and reassigned the reporter, Gary Webb, who later quit.

Meaning the feds investigated themselves and ever so surprisingly found they did no wrong, the Merc caved into political pressure and basically stabbed their Pulitizer Prize winning reporter in the back. They are as responsible for his ultimate sucide as if they had pulled the trigger themselves. Even worse, they failed the public when they failed to back him up. His allegations were true.

This also illustrates another great failing of the WOsD. The prohibition enforcers surely touted Ricky as a "kingpin bust." However, it's likely some underling's girlfriend received a harsher sentence by mere association but because she couldn't afford a high priced lawyer or offer inside information to the feds, she will end up doing more time than Ricky will.

[hat tip Vig]