Let Farnham die at home

Former state representative Keith Farnham, 67, looks like the walking dead. That's because he's clearly on his last legs, suffering from bladder cancer, Hepatitis C and in need of a lung transplant. But the distorted wheels of federal justice are set to give Farnham twelve to fifteen years in prison, more accurately a prison hospital, for doing bad things with his computer; things that help fuel the commission of horrific violent acts, the production o...f child pornography.

Farnham is most certainly not a danger to society. He's destroyed his career, indeed his life, illegally satiating his sexual fantasies. The feds can go ahead and sentence him to 12 to 15 on March 19. Then they should suspend the sentence pending his monitored agreement to never again so much as touch a computer. That will offer a Farnham a shred of dignity as he faces the Grim Reaper square in the kisser. It was also save US taxpayers about $24,000 yearly in unnecessary expense incarcerating a debilitated, dying man. It will also recognize that federal prisons, busting at the seams with many of our 2.3 million inmates, the most in the world, should be reserved for the most violent and dangerous offenders.