Killer walks away from justice
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Updated: October 28, 2009 1:12 AM
Joseph Johnny Jr., also known as JR, was 18 when he participated in a killing — beating Dylan Raper, who had already been stabbed 24 times by his cousin Jennifer Johnny, until he stopped moving at the side of Blind Bay Road.
He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail in addition to the 16 months he served waiting for his trial in March 2006.
But now, Johnny is on the lam, having simply walked away from a Vancouver halfway house on Saturday night after serving roughly two-and-a-half years of his sentence.
The obvious question is why was a violent offender with a history of drug and alcohol abuse permitted to reside in a halfway house where he was allowed partial freedom?
This a less-publicized reality of our justice system. Sentences handed out in court are very often reduced or offenders’ conditions are mitigated once they are in the penal system.
While there can be no equal price for the act of taking a life, two-plus years of incarceration in a correctional facility seems a paltry sum before an offender is released back into the community in any form.
Johnny’s actions indicate that remorse or taking responsibility for Raper’s death is far from his mind. And now, that offender is out there somewhere, on the run, possibly posing a serious danger to others. At the very least, he is draining law enforcement resources once again in a search to see him fulfil the sentence he richly deserved.
It is cases like Johnny’s that continue to shake the public’s faith in our judicial system.
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