Hammered Softly: Tom Delay’s Light Sentence
Attorney Dick DeGuerin recently complained to the Houston Chronicle that ex-Congressman Tom DeLay’s three-year sentence is excessively harsh. DeGuerin says his client—who is appealing—got a raw deal compared to ex-state Rep. Kino Flores. Flores recently drew probation on felony convictions for failing to disclose shady income. Yet DeLay—aided by his $10 million defense team—seems to have made off like a bandit compared to other people convicted of charges involving criminal money-laundering, according to an Observer analysis.
Unable to find a sentencing database, the Observer reviewed Texas Attorney General press releases trumpeting money-laundering cases since the time of DeLay’s 2002 crime. This research yielded a dozen people with readily available sentencing data. Texas courts sentenced these 12 people to an average of 17 years in prison, or six times longer than DeLay’s sentence (ringleaders were chosen when multiple people conspired on a crime).