Outrage has been pouring in since ex-Sen. Vince Fumo, a first-rate shakedown artist was sentenced to 55-months in prison, a sentence that fell short of what he could have gotten under a plea agreement. The government filed papers Friday indicating it plans to appeal the sentencing. This should be interesting.
When U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter imposed a prison sentence of four years and seven months on former Pennsylvania Sen. Vincent Fumo on Tuesday, it drew immediate comparisons to the time behind bars an Atlantic City Superior Court judge gave Jones, 38, just four days earlier.
For a pervasive corruption scheme that prosecutors claim involved more than $4 million in fraud, Buckwalter gave Fumo, 66, a sharply reduced sentence from the 10 to 15 years prosecutors sought, citing his good works as a Democratic senator from Philadelphia. The judge deviated from federal sentencing guidelines and a probation report that recommended 21 to 27 years.
When Philadelphia news outlets reported Jones’ sentence last week, a poster identified only as “Louie45” wrote on a Daily News blog: “this guy should be a state senator in pa. He would have gotten off free and they would have given him the lobsters. This poor guy got 7 months less than the thief FUMO.”
“Scorpio27” wrote: “never steal anything small.”
