Justice in Massachusetts

Earlier this week, Mitt Romney said the Massachusetts judge who released a convicted killer from prison should resign, after that convicted killer recently was taken into custody and charged with the slayings of a young couple in the state of Washington.

The judge had been an appointee when Romney was governor of Massachusetts.

Romney's call for the judge's resignation smacked of "political expediency," in the words of a past president of the Massachusetts Bar Association.

In today's Boston Globe, columnist Scot Lehigh explores the case in more detail. The "official" local reaction has been "so muted as to defy belief," he says.

"There are important questions that need to be answered," Lehigh wrote.

Even more important, Mr. Lehigh, is asking the questions in the first place.

And that is precisely what he does in today's column.

Jennifer Rubin in The New York Observer writes abou† many problems that Romney is having, including the case of the murdered couple and the released killer. Rudy Giiuliani seized the opportunity to criticize Romney's law-and-order record as governor.

Romney's campaign counterattacked, but, as Rubin points out, comparing records on crime with Giuliani -- a former U.S. attorney -- is "an activity the Romney campaign will want to move on from as quickly as possible."

Romney should be ashamed of himself for trying to score political points from the tragic murders of two young people. But the officeholders in Massachusetts should be considered criminally negligent if they don't address the serious issues that have been raised in this case.