Petty prosecutor wins spiteful school zone case

The latest defendant in the Great Barrington kid sting, 18 year old Mitchell Lawrence, was sentenced to 2 years behind bars for selling 1.2 grams of pot to an undercover officer who zealously pursued the deal and lured the teen into a parking lot in order to be able to evoke a school zone violation.

The judge apologized for the sentence that under the grotesque school zone enhancement he was forced to impose. The sentence for the actual marijuana charge amounted to ten days.

The school in question was a preschool that wasn't open at the time of the deal. It wasn't even obviously a school. This is not what the school zone enchancement was meant to combat. The petty, small minded DA Capeless insisted on charging under that provision however -- and at his discretion, he was not compelled to do so -- in order to a punish this teenager for selling an amount of pot that wouldn't fill a thimble.

Is this justice? I think not.