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Community Pott,S■*lt;I.*,OpinionThomas TaschingerDid Morris get off easy?So what are we to make of the news that former football star Eugene Mercury Morris has been freed from a Florida prison on charges of dealing cocaine?Has an innocent man finally received the justice our great country promises to all people charged with crimes? Or has another celebrity escaped punishment because of his famous name or the resources to buy a gaggle of slick defense lawyers?Probably no one but Morris knows the real answer, because our legal system has responded both ways.Morris, a star halfback on the undefeated Miami Dolphin teamthat won the Super Bowl in 1972,was convicted of dealing cocaine in 1982.But last March, his conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court on grounds that the trial judge should have allowed a certain witness to testify in Morris' behalf that he was entrapped into the dope deal by law enforcement officers.In a plea bargaining agreement last week, Morris changed his plea from innocent on all charges to no contest to a single count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. A charge of trafficking in cocaine, which carries a mandatory minimum prison term of 15 years in Florida, was dropped.To be honest, I don't know anymore about the case than what I've read or seen in the news media for the past few years, and especially recently, when Morris was freed.I suspect, however, that if Morris' last name were Jones and he had been a former autoworker or fry cook instead of a former NFL running back,., he'd still be doing time and looking forward to his first opportunity for parole in 1998.First, in my unscholarly legal opinion, entrapment is the flimsiest excuse for a crime since the guards at Auschwitz said they were merely following orders.If you are a moral, law-abiding individual and someone comes up to you and chirps, Let's commit a murder, or Let's deal some drugs, or Let's kidnap somebody, your first response should be Hell no! and your second should be Goodbye.If you go 90 percent of the way toward committing such a crime but are stopped only because an undercover police officer is involved in the matrix of criminal activity that surrounds the event, I think you're guilty as charged — but I probably couldn't get John DeLorean to agree with me on that point.Another thing that rankles me: Morris's plea bargain stipulated that he would be freed after serving 4V2 years. Since he is no longer incarcerated, you might assume i he has indeed spent 4'/2 years in 5 the slammer, right?Wrong, bail-bondsman breath. i You see, he'd actually served slightly more than three years, but the judge also granted him V/2 years credit for good behavior.* Morris, who has admitted free-basing cocaine before his arrest, has already spoken on the evils of drugs to an estimated 30,000 people around Florida, and now he says he plans to do even more of that charitable work.That's wonderful, and I don't doubt the sincerity of his repentence, but wouldn't any prison inmate prefer to be out giving lectures to high school kids instead of making license plates?At any rate, Morris is now appearing on some talk shows and a book — what else — is in the works.I believe there is a line in the Pledge of Allegiance praising the liberty and justice for all in America.By and large that line is accurate, but let's not forget that justice for all also means jail for all who have been convicted of crimes — not just the poor, the unlucky or theunsophisticated.//
Newspaper Details
Port Neches Community Post
Port Neches, Texas, US
Wed, Jun 25, 1986
Page 3
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USA 15 Feb 2022
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