Appeals court vacates sentence in Rand Paul attack case.

Senator Rand Paul. The Hill.

A federal appeals court has vacated a 30 day sentence for the man who attacked senator Rand Paul. The Hill. Rene Boucher was Rand Paul's neighbor and plead guilty to attacking Paul. He was sentenced to 30 days in prison despite the fact that Paul was severely injured in the attack, which broke five of his ribs and required surgery on his lungs. The appeals judge said that the sentence was not in line with other serious attacks against federal officials and was more in line with cases of assault where nobody was hurt. Federal criminals who have been convicted for assault average 26 months in prison. 

My Comment:

I had always thought that the 30 day sentence that Rene Boucher got for almost killing Rand Paul was an outrage. Paul had been severely injured in the attack and could have very easily been killed or crippled for life. To get 30 days for that is just disgusting. 

Honestly, I think that the average sentence for Federal assault is pretty bad too. I think you should get more than two years in prison for almost killing a sitting US senator. Giving how dangerous this situation was they should have thrown the book at him. It still might happen but even if it does I think it should be a bigger punishment. 

The 30 day sentence was so light that I thought it might encourage others to attack elected representatives. Given the political situation these days that is not something that should be encouraged. Politicians are extremely vulnerable and it wouldn't be too difficult for people to attack them. If they know that there are essentially no consequences for doing so why wouldn't they? 

I also wonder if the light sentence was due to Paul being a Republican and an ally of sorts of President Trump. I suspect that if it was a Democratic Senator an attacker in that case would have had the book thrown at them. On the other hand the judge that vacated the sentence in this case was an Obama appointee so maybe I am off base here. 

All that being said, I am extremely thankful that Rand Paul survived this attack and it looks like he will be getting more justice. I've always been a fan of Paul, even though I don't agree with him on every issue. He strikes me as a very principled man and one of the better people working in our government. Hopefully his attacker ends up going away for a long time.