Inquirer Editorial: Crime deserves more time

When a federal judge gave former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo a light prison sentence, it triggered near-unanimous public outrage - with good reason.

So it's welcome news that a federal appeals court has now agreed that the judge messed up.

Fumo, 68, got off easy. There's simply no other way to size up the 55-month sentence that he was given for his conviction on corruption charges two years ago.

The onetime South Philadelphia power broker was found guilty on dozens of counts that included fraud, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. His years-long schemes pilfered nearly $4 million, mostly by defrauding two nonprofit groups. He used Senate staff as personal servants, and required little of an associate given a fat state contract.

Under sentencing guidelines, prosecutors said, Fumo should have been jailed for 21 years or more. Yet U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter departed radically from that standard, and even reduced Fumo's jail time to less than the modified guidelines of 11 to 14 years that the judge established. Buckwalter's apparent reasoning? Fumo's "charitable service and good works."

Well, in ordering Buckwalter to conduct a new sentencing hearing, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Tuesday took a major step toward getting it right on Fumo's penalty.

All the more so, given that prosecutors' appeal of the sentence was such a long shot.

Whatever punishment best reflects Fumo's misconduct, it clearly must exceed the 4 ½-year term that the imprisoned Fumo has nearly half-completed.

No matter how well-reasoned by the trial judge, Fumo's initial sentence left the impression that an influential politician - vouched for by a bevy of connected friends, including former Gov. Edward G. Rendell - got to slide.

It certainly stood in stark contrast to the 10- and 6 ½-year terms given to, respectively, former city Treasurer Corey Kemp and former Councilman Rick Mariano. Those corrupt officials' grubby, self-dealing scams hardly measured up to Fumo's orchestrated corruption and abuse of power.

Indeed, the appeals panel has set the stage for a much tougher accounting for the former senator, by describing Fumo's case as "one of the largest political scandals in recent state history."

While Buckwalter still has much of the appropriate discretion that's afforded judges, he should have to craft a sentence that takes into account the appellate judges' understandably damning view of Fumo's conduct.

On several issues addressed by the appeals court - the actual amount of Fumo's haul, the established sophistication of his scheme, and his defrauding of a charity - Fumo should earn more time to wear a prison jumpsuit.

With the ruling by the appeals court, the public so justifiably angered by Fumo's original sentence can have a greater hope that justice will be served.