Dept of Corrections Rejects Lenient Sentence

Here's the story from Sept. 15:

Almost one year after Michael "Mikey" Miller was accidentally shot and killed in their Burien home, the couple went before a King County judge Friday to plead for leniency for the teen who pulled the trigger: their other son, Jordan Jantoc.

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"I think this is a case where justice needs to be tempered with mercy," [Superior Court Judge Harry] McCarthy said before he sentenced Jordan to 24 months of home detention, followed by probation when he will be required to give speeches on gun control.

Family gets wish in sibling slaying: leniency, Seattle Times, Sept. 15, 2007.

Now the Department of Corrections says it cannot legally comply with the sentence:

[A]ccording to the prosecutor's office, the state prison system said it could not enforce Jantoc's sentence because home detention is not available to those convicted of certain violent crimes nor is it typically used for sentences of more than one year.

* * * King County Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz said he does not expect DOC's notice to significantly alter Jantoc's existing sentence.

State rejects boy's sentence in stepbrother's slaying, Seattle Times, Sept. 28, 2007.

Judge McCarthy is a UW Trial Ad instructor.