by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Well, this is a turnabout! Steve Descanos, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s attorney much maligned in Bacon’s Rebellion for being woke and soft on crime, secured a guilty verdict in a trial involving the killing of an unarmed man. Two days after the offender was sentenced by the presiding judge, Governor Youngkin commuted his sentence.

The case involved a Fairfax County police officer who shot and killed a man suspected of having stolen a pair of sunglasses from a Tysons Corner Center store. The shooting occurred at night as the police were pursuing the suspect. After an investigation and viewing the officer’s body cam footage, the Fairfax County police chief fired the officer, saying the his actions did not meet the department’s use-of-force protocols.

This was not the first time that the officer had drawn his gun on suspected shoplifters. It had happened at least twice before. In both those instances, no one got shot. Charges were subsequently dropped against the suspects.

Descanos secured an indictment for involuntary manslaughter, but the trial jury, after viewing the body cam footage, instead found the defendant guilty of the lesser charge of reckless handling of a firearm. Last Friday, the judge sentenced the offender to three years in prison. After spending two nights in jail, he walked free on Sunday following Youngkin’s commuting his sentence.
Youngkin explained his decision by saying that the sentence exceeded the state’s sentencing guidelines. “I am convinced that the court’s sentence of incarceration is unjust,” he said.

Think about this. Youngkin, who did not attend the trial and did not hear the testimony, chose to substitute his judgment for that of an experienced judge who oversaw the trial and who had reviewed the presentence reports prepared by experienced probation officers.