Teens, Beer and a Party’s Consequences (Letter to the Editor)

The June 9 edition of The Post left me disillusioned with our criminal justice system.

The front page told the story of a Virginia mother sentenced to jail for more than two years for serving alcohol at her son’s 16th birthday party [“Party Host Mom Set for Va. Jail Term”]. The back page of the news section told the story of a Tennessee pastor’s wife who will serve just a few months for killing her husband by shooting him as he lay in bed [“Woman Who Killed Husband Might Serve Only 60 Days,” Nation in Brief].

What kind of perverse reasoning deems killing your husband a less serious offense than serving alcohol to teenagers? We need to rethink the zero-tolerance policies that led to the Virginia mom’s draconian sentence — and the disturbing tendency to make excuses for wives who kill that led to the Tennessee woman’s ridiculously short sentence.