Outrage Grows Over Nunez Commutation by Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger's disgraceful commutation of the sentence of  Esteban Nunez, son of former State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, has stirred outrage in California.

The younger Nunez was part of group of four punks who were denied entrance into a party two years ago on the campus of San Diego State University. Drunk and angry, they later attacked 21 year old Luis Santos, one of the party-goers as he walked down a nearby street. Santos was stabbed in the heart and died. Nunez and his friends fled San Diego to the Sacramento area, where they burned their clothes and other evidence and threw them into a river. Nunez bragged to his friends that his influential father, the corrupt former Speaker of the Assembly and a pal of Schwarzenegger, Fabian Nunez, would get them off.

He knew what he was talking about. Schwarzenegger has reduced the sentence from 16 to 7 years.

It was later revealed that the actual stabber was Ryan Jett, one of the four youths that attacked Santos that night. In a plea deal to voluntary manslaughter, Jett and Nunez each received 16 years in prison.  The lawyers' argument was that Nunez should have received a lesser sentence since  Jett actually struck the fatal stab wounds.

So what?

If a group of people attack one person, all are equally guilty of the crime. If a bank teller gets shot and killed in a bank robbery, all of the robbers are guilty of the killing.

Of course, the defense attorneys have made, and in defending the governor's action, are still making preposterous claims.

They claim that Nunez was treated more harshly because he was the son of a prominent politician. Well, I guess we now know that was a lie.

Initially, they had brought out the old "black guys did it" defense stating that there had been reports of some black guys brawling in the nearby neighborhood.

They also initially tried to use self defense as an excuse. Yes. Four young men were defending themselves from Luis Santos that night. Somebody said that Santos had bragged about having a gun. (Santos was not a gang member and had no history of violence or lawbreaking.) There was no gun.

It should also be noted that neither the victim's family nor the San Diego DA's office had been consulted about this action. It came as a total shock.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's tenure of governor was marked by total ineptitude. He has left this state in a financial mess-just as he found it. From now on, we can no longer laugh and make jokes about his sorry performance as governor. In his final act as governor, he took care of his friend Fabian Nunez by reducing his son's sentence. It is beyond disgraceful. It was an act of corruption.

Schwarzenegger apparently still has political ambitions on a national level. Whether that is true or he intends to go back making juvenile movies, this act should stay with him the rest of his life. He is not fit to hold public office. In my view, he is not fit to do anything but go back to Austria-and stay there.