Day 11. "Mitigating Circumstances."

Favoritism. God hates it. Sadly, it's always been part of man's history, although the ancient Medes and Persians did a good job of mitigating it by keeping the law, even when "inconvenient." Unfortunately, modern Western man has not done as well, as George Orwell wryly satirized in his famous Animal Farm.

It's not supposed to happen in our country. The wonderful idealistic inscription on the United States Supreme Court building proclaims "Equal justice under law!" But, as Orwell noted, the sad reality is, All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

If you're a judge, you're likely to get a different kind of "justice" than if you're not. (Hey, you won't even get a speeding ticket from photo radar!) Especially when it comes to "Mitigating circumstances."

For example, I read a headline on the Drudge Report today, titled Elderly Bank Bandit: I Robbed to Pay Off my Mortgage...

According to the story, an 69 year old desperate man robbed a bank.

'I was hoping to get $50,000 to pay off my mortgage,' he said.

Wilson said he lives with his 73-year old wife who he described as a 'gentle soul.' He said he feared for her future living on the streets if he couldn't make their house payment.

That sounds like a pretty good mitigating circumstance. Loving husband needs to pay off mortgage. Not for himself, but for the sake of his aging wife.

Still, the man was caught and is being charged with robbery. And rightly so. Too bad for him he wasn't a judge.

You see, when Judge Hinson falsified his time card, perjuring himself before the Supreme Court—claiming he deserved his pay when he did not and steal... errr, "appropriating it"—he had a mitigating circumstance too. And, like the story above, it also involved family.

In his case,

Beginning around spring of 2006, personal and professional challenges arose that contributed to [Judge Hinson] failing to rule on matters within [ahem] the required sixty days. By that time, the health of [Judge Hinson's] father had been deteriorating for some time due to Alzheimer s disease. [His] stepmother, elderly herself, suffered a fall during the 2005 holidays and could no longer provide her husband with the care he required. By the spring of 2006, the progression of his father's disease and the state of his stepmother's health left [Judge Hinson] and his siblings no choice but to place his father in an assisted living facility. The difficulty of this decision for [Judge Hinson] was heightened because his father had been a successful businessman and his deteriorated condition marked a substantial and disheartening decline from his earlier abilities and activities. Unfortunately, although the disease caused his father to be disoriented and forgetful much of the time, he was sufficiently aware of his new situation to be displeased and depressed. [Judge Hinson's} father died just a few months later in July 2006, and [Judge Hinson] was then required to assume and discharge significant responsibility for his administering his father's complicated estate.

So you see, like the bank robber above, Judge Hinson had a good excuse for breaking the law and, in essence, robbing the State. He was simply caring for his family. (And probably needed the money too.)

Unlike the bank robber above, Judge Hinson has not been charged.

So much for Equal justice under law. Oink,oink and wink, wink.