Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya

I think it’s pretty safe to say that if there is one person in the United States that I wouldn’t want to be this week it would be Peter Cahill.

Judge Peter Cahill will reconvene his court in Minnesota this week where he is tasked with sentencing Derek Chauvin for his convictions on 2nd and 3rd degree murder as well as a charge of 2nd degree manslaughter. To this day I’m not sure how something can be three different things but that makes no never mind I suppose.

Prosecutors are asking for a sentence of 30 years in prison. Can you imagine the burning and looting if they had not?

Chauvin’s attorneys have asked for the minimum sentence which you may or may not believe is probation. And of course you can’t blame them for asking for the minimum, they are his representatives.

By all accounts of his colleagues Judge Cahill is a fair, honest and diligent judge. Of course the fact that he is white is a huge strike against him, and I will guarantee you that when he hands out a sentence that is even one day less than the maximum asked for by prosecutors several liberal knuckleheads will pull that card right out of their pocket. Shame really, because we’ve once again come to a situation where emotion completely overrides reason, and those who would divide us will continue to use all they can to do so.

From 2008, the year he was elected to the bench, through January, Cahill has sentenced six people convicted of second-degree murder to prison. They received terms ranging from 12.5 years to 40 years.

In Cahill’s most recent case of sentencing on unintentional second-degree murder — the most serious charge on which Chauvin was convicted — he handed down a punishment of 15 years. In that case, Matthew Witt pleaded guilty in January 2020 to unintentional second-degree murder for beating his mother to death and to first-degree assault for violently attacking his father July 24, 2019. He received another 7 years for the assault charge for a total of 22 years.

Based on that and using a clear head one would expect that Chauvin is destined for at least 20 years behind bars. I think it’s doubtful that prosecutors will get the maximum sentence given various factors, and of course the defense’s request of probation is something I’m not even sure a genie in a lamp could pull off.

Cahill is a Minnesota guy. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School. For the past year he goes home just like the rest of us and watches the news. He watches his city and his state burn. Then he has to remind himself that despite the media mob telling him this is different – it is not. There was a crime. A man has been convicted. A sentence must now be handed down, and only the judge has that power.

Neither “side” in this case will likely be happy. It’s too bad. There will be a golden opportunity here for the anarchists quite frankly. If the prosecutors and someone representing black lives matter would get up immediately after the verdict and say “we think this is fair and just under the law and are glad to see Derek Chauvin behind bars for a long time” it would go a long way to proving their sincerity.

But we know they won’t. I pray for you Judge Peter Cahill, may God grant you wisdom and peace, and protect you and your family from those who would do you harm.