Byron Dorgan: “Finally, Mr. President, on a subject I came to the floor to speak about for a couple of minutes, I have been to the…”

“Finally, Mr. President, on a subject I came to the floor to speak about for a couple of minutes, I have been to the floor of the Senate repeatedly to talk about our justice system. Our judicial system, in many respects, is a remarkable and interesting system. In some respects, it is broken. I have talked on this floor of case after case of violent crimes, committed by violent criminals, who we knew were violent, but yet were turned out of prison, and in many cases turned them out of prison or jail early because they earned good time for early release. Parole, probation, early release for good time means that the young boy I have spoken about on the floor of the Senate, Jonathan Hall, murdered, stabbed over 50 times, by a man who had kidnapped and murdered twice before and was out early on good time, living in young Jonathan Hall's neighborhood, killed that young boy and threw him down a pond. The young boy, when they found him, had dirt and grass between his fingers, because he obviously had not been dead, despite being stabbed 50 times, and tried to climb out of the pond before he died. Why was he dead? Because someone was let out of jail early to live in that neighborhood and kill young Jonathan. Bettina Pruckmayr, a young woman who came to Washington, excited about a wonderful future, stabbed many, many times by someone at an ATM machine, someone who had been in jail and let out of jail early, who should never have been let out on the streets.”