Our legal system is broken. The details are provided in the articulate and too truthful article (8/1/23) about Cannon James Tally murdering Justin Rothenberger and the associated editorial (8/3/23), both by Jayson Jacoby. I won’t use the term “legal justice system” because there clearly has been no justice.

Tally was not tried as an adult because he was evaluated and found to not have the sophistication and maturity that an adult would have possessed if committing the same horrible murder. The provided information explained that Tally took the laser equipped pistol from Rothenberger and used it to shoot him in the head — twice. Let’s analyze that. It means Tally used the laser to thoughtfully, purposefully, precisely, calmly hold the red dot of the laser on his victim’s head and carefully squeezed the trigger so that he didn’t miss. Because the first shot would have dropped Rothenberger, Tally then precisely placed the red laser dot and shot him in the head again. This was not a juvenile smashing a mailbox or shoplifting some candy; this was precise, deliberate, and cold-blooded murder. Then Tally ran away but shortly and decisively returned, threatening to kill anyone who reported the murder to police. How anyone could determine that Tally was too immature to understand what he was doing shows that the legal system does not serve to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. How comfortable are those two evaluators of Tally knowing that he will be free in seven years? Is there anyone in his/her right mind who thinks Tally will come out of MacLaren, Oregon’s youth detention facility, in seven years as a reformed and model citizen? Highly doubtful!

And even if Tally had been tried as an adult and locked up for 25 years, would that have been appropriate? I’d say clearly not. He should be executed as all murderers should be executed. Oregon, and all of America, needs capital punishment for crimes such as this. Capital punishment should never have been taken away as an option for dealing with this type of crime. Capital punishment needs to be reestablished. Why is it that liberals are just fine with murdering millions of innocent unborn, and in some cases, newborn babies, but have warped our legal system to protect criminals like Cannon James Tally?

Jim Carnahan

Baker City