How will Lisa Randall be repaid?: What I wonder is: Who's going to return to Lisa Randall and her family the hundreds of thousands of dollars they were forced to waste [defending against] former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas' phony charges ("Phantom Murder," Paul Rubin, July 22; also see "Justice, Finally," July 29)?
Who is going to return her dignity?
I hope that Randall sues the pants off Maricopa County and the Peoria Police Department for this gross miscarriage of justice. She deserves to be made as whole as possible. She will never get over the degradation she was forced to go through. Imagine, sitting in jail and knowing you are being railroaded, that you are innocent, that you are a good and caring person, and look where it's gotten you.
There is a special place in Hell for the professed good Christian man Andy Thomas. What a hypocrite! When things started to go bad for his office's prosecution — because the facts didn't add up to a murder — he overruled the legal experts in his office and went for a death-penalty conviction. Now this evil man wants to be Arizona's attorney general.
What a place we live in. I pray that there is more justice, and we are rid of Thomas once and for all.
Gina Williams, Tempe
Praying for peace for Randall: Poor Lisa Randall. No matter that she is free of the bogus charges against her; she will carry this ordeal to her grave. My heart goes out to her and to her family. May God give her some peace, now that just County Attorney Richard Romley has done the right thing.
And thanks to Paul Rubin for having the guts, once again, to call bullshit on the richly deserving. In this case, ex-County Attorney Andrew Thomas, [is] truly a debased individual.
Linda Ortiz, Phoenix
"Not Enough Justice, Yet": Imagine the hell that Lisa Randall and her family endured! It's hard to imagine how she was able to keep from going crazy or killing herself.
Somebody needs to pay for her suffering. Your headline said, "Justice, Finally," but it's more like, "Not Enough Justice, Yet."
Timothy Mack, Phoenix
Strip Thomas of his license: There will be no justice for any of us until Andrew Thomas is stripped of his law license, so he can do no more damage to Arizonans. Go, State Bar of Arizona!
Patrick Barnhill, no address available
Living in fear: Arizona must be quite a place! I'm happy that I don't live there. Because all I read about are miscarriages of justice.
If I lived there, I would be continually in fear that I would run afoul of the local fascists and die in the bowels of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail.
John Ramirez, address unavailable
See the light, voters!: I can't even relate how horrible this story made me feel.
I guess I am one who tries to delude myself about conditions in this place. I want to believe that the powers that be are just, but this just isn't the case. Rick Romley may be the only exception in prosecutorial ranks.
Lisa Randall's story is a cautionary one — because this could happen to any of us. I hope that, with Andrew Thomas' leaving the County Attorney's Office, we are safe again from this kind of tyranny. But what happens if he is elected state attorney general? He was leading in the last poll I noticed.
Please, voters, see the light! Vote for Tom Horne! If [Thomas] is in an even higher office, imagine what kind of inhumanity will prevail in our state. He and Joe Arpaio will be running over all of us. All hope will be lost.
Annette Valdez, no address available
Disgusting Arizona: This woman's life is ruined forever! Too bad the law has people working for it that are more intent on winning a badge of fame than actually finding the truth!
This state, in its courtrooms, over and over again, has ignored the law in determining a verdict. Judges, prosecuting attorneys . . . There should be an investigation of Arizona, in general. It's disgusting.
Name withheld
Cops here are incompetent: The police in the Valley of the Sun are extremely incompetent. Obviously the medical examiner is, too, as [that office] did not even do a proper autopsy.
I have been a victim of the police here. Too many badge-heavy police with egos are trying to make names for themselves.
This poor woman — since she was last with the baby, let's just blame her. What the hell is that? The incompetence that goes on in police departments, as well as in prosecutor's offices, should be [exposed] so people take better warning. This could happen to you.
Name withheld
Similar experiences: I'm not even finished reading the entire article and know from experience the ridiculous crap this poor woman has suffered.
Name withheld
Shame on everyone involved: First, my heart goes out to Dillon's parents. Being a parent myself, I can imagine how devastating it must be to lose a child.
Second, I think it is an absolute shame that the pediatrician did not recognize how sick this child was. It is too bad that insurance companies, in the spirit of saving costs, discourage doctors from running necessary tests to properly diagnose patients.
Perhaps Dillon would be alive today if the pediatrician had had a clue. I'm giving the pediatrician the benefit of the doubt here and assuming that the failure to comprehend the seriousness of Dillon's condition was not due to negligence or incompetence.
Finally, I think it is absolutely appalling that it took our legal system over three years to finally figure out that this case should be dismissed.
I suspect that Lisa's life has been ruined. She should not have had to spend one day in prison. Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? What happened to our Sixth Amendment [guaranteeing] the "right to a speedy and public trial"?
Shame on everyone involved — the detectives, the medical experts, and the prosecuting attorneys — for their negligence, incompetence, maliciousness, and/or dishonesty throughout this tragic travesty.
And the public foots the bill for this blatant injustice. And will likely pay even more when this poor woman sues the pants off of these circus clowns. It is time for some major reform!
Name withheld
Not even NRA types like Andy: The problem with Andrew Thomas is that he exerts a heavy hand against law-abiding citizens to show inflated statistics on his prosecutions.
Thomas routinely criticizes his opponents for not being conservative enough, but to those of us who know Thomas and have seen firsthand the destruction he causes, Thomas is little more than a dangerous zealot.
I must say that I am surprised that Andrew Thomas received an endorsement from the National Rifle Association. He may have a flimsy pro-gun record, but just show or use a gun of any type for a just cause in his jurisdiction and you [would] be facing jail time. My line of work has led me to know people who have been prosecuted by Thomas and forced to plead to felonies for simply showing or having a weapon in the open. [Thomas' office called] that "brandishing" a weapon.
I have met several people who, by firing a weapon, have stopped criminals in the act of committing felonies and, then, were prosecuted and sent to jail. One person stopped vandalism and a break-in at a neighbor's home, pleaded to shooting within the city limits, and was sent to jail. Another actually stopped a kidnapping by firing a gun but was then forced to plead to a felony and was sent to jail. Thomas' office called that "shooting into a structure."
In each of these cases, there was no victim, but Thomas' office declared Maricopa County the victim.
Thomas touts a 94 percent conviction rate. What good is Thomas' conviction record if it means any of the people prosecuted are average, good citizens with families and jobs, who own real property, who pay their taxes — and who find it necessary to opt for jail time by pleading to felony charges rather than taking a chance [on] being sent to prison?
Don't vote for Andrew Thomas. You may be next.
Name withheld
