Former Rockwall District Attorney Ray Sumrow got caught with his hand in the till, literally, and was tried, convicted, sentenced, and thrown in jail for being a thief.
And less than two years later, he’s out.
Ray Sumrow has an interesting story. He was the head prosecutor in Rockwall for SIX terms. He was named ”Prosecutor of the Year” by the State Bar of Texa in 2001. He survived cancer that year, too. Pretty popular guy, right?
Well, maybe until Ray Sumrow was discovered to have stolen around $9600 in computer stuff and cash from the county he served, as well as moving $68,000 out of the county accounts and into his own personal account for awhile (though he did put the cash back of his own accord). What was this guy thinking?
Less than a decade after being named Top Prosecutor, Ray Sumrow went to jail. The State Bar of Texas that had the Big Ceremony for him back in 2001, disbarred him last summer. In January, he was quietly released from jail and is out on parole, some thinking he’s back at home in Hunt County were he grew up.
How’d he get out so fast?
Getting out after 20 months on a 15 year sentence sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it? Well, some have been wondering about that — and the Board of Pardons and Paroles and others in the know, report that it all adds up. He’s served a quarter of his sentence, and that’s the standard rule of thumb for someone to be considered for parole in Texas.
How’d they count that up?
From what the media’s reporting, the officials have counted (1) his 20 months behind bars; (2) his 18 months of credit for good conduct; (3) his 10 months of credit for doing work while serving time. Add those together, and you’ve got 48 months. That’s gonna get you to 1/4 of a 15 year (180 month) sentence.
Wow.
Excellent Article! Thank you so much.
I’m not familiar with Ray Sumrow’s crime. Not knowing the man, my hope is that he has learned his lesson, given up his criminal ways and become a productive member of society.
I believe that the American system of justice is flawed in that our primary response to most criminal acts is jail time for the bad guy. I won’t say that incarceration should not be an available tool but I think that society is better served when punishment consists of the criminal having to compensate the victim for damage plus punitive compensation depending on the case.
Restitution is better for both society and the criminal –
- less expensive to the community.
- the criminal has the opportunity to repent and recover
- individual citizens may choose to further punish the criminal with ostracism. (this happens even with our current model).
- the damaged party is compensated.
- probably a bunch more I’m not thinking of right now.
I found myself regurgitating what you said in your 1 and 2 points while answering the three questions. :$ I’ll be brief instead
I ran into this page mistakenly, surprisingly, this is a great website.The site owner has carried out a superb job of putting it together, the info here is really insightful. Now i am going to bookmark this internet site so that I can revisit in the future.