on Civility and Justice

While at work early one september morning, I received a phone call from the Pinal County Sheriff's office, telling me that my house had been ransacked.

They caught the culprit the following week, after he'd broken into an octogenarian's house for the second time. She'd been home both times.

A few weeks ago, I attended the sentencing. I read the following statement.

I'd had much time to consider my words, but I was still not prepared for the emotions that coursed through me as I stood there.  I was shaking by the time I'd finished.  On leaving, I felt if I had passed sentence on him myself. I was glad that I'd remembered these words, which I had heard in my youth.


 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.  
Romans 12:17


. . not avenging yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath, for it hath been written, 'Vengeance is Mine", 
Romans 12:19

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Case:  CR 201002136

State vs. Albert Joseph Graham

Statement of D. Brooke Hatfield, to be read at sentencing

Mr. Graham is not civilized,  as evidenced by his actions. He has demonstrated his disregard for the most fundamental rule of communal living, namely a respect for human dignity. He willingly entered another person’s locked residence with the intent to take that person’s possessions for his own gain.  This is a violation that we do not tolerate in 5 year old children and yet Mr. Graham’s chronological age exceeds 30.

I can remember standing in my bedroom, making calls to cancel my credit cards, with my belongings in a jumble that reached the middle of my thighs. My house had been quite thoroughly ransacked. Words simply cannot convey a personal violation of such magnitude.

I cannot conceive the sense of violation I would experience to have Mr. Graham rummaging through my house while I was home.

Confinement in prison is not justice, it is merely protection for Mr. Graham’s victims, both past, including those not represented in this case, and his intended future targets.

Probation is not justice. Again, it is merely protection for Mr. Graham’s victims, both past and his intended future targets.

Today, as Mr. Graham hears the court’s sentence pronounced, he knows full well that his confinement will end on a given date in the near future. He also knows full well that in a few short years, the restrictions of probation will be lifted and he will be free to resume his life. Mr. Graham’s restrictions and discomforts have an expiration date.

It is my sincere wish, that as Mr. Graham hears his sentence read, that he understand that for his victims, there will be no date on which the sense of personal violation will end. Nor will there be a date on which his victims can again fully trust the members of his or her community.

Mr. Graham, you have committed a crime, not just against individuals, but against civilization itself.   The opportunity for justice to be served may never arise, and most certainly, it will arise only when you personally experience the level of violation you have imposed on others.   

In that moment, may you have the awareness to understand, and acknowledge, the consequences of your actions. May you also, in that moment, have the grace to behave as a civilized man.