EDITORIALS : A life of crime Mitchell Johnson continues down the wrong path
Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008
It probably shouldn't surprise us that the boy who shot and killed classmates and teachers when he was 13 hasn't learned the difference between right and wrong a decade later.
We had hoped that Mitchell Scott Johnson, one of the two Jonesboro school shooters, would have figured it out by now - that the light would have gone on at some point during the years he spent in prison and that he would have grown to appreciate what a break he got, given that he served less than two years for every life he took that day in 1998. Johnson could have determined to turn his life around and, at the very least, start behaving.
So far, it hasn't happened. Last week, the 24-year-old Johnson pleaded guilty to using a stolen credit card and a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession. Johnson fraudulently used a customer's credit card that he picked up while employed as a clerk at the Fastrip on South Walton Boulevard in Bentonville. When officers arrested Johnson on Feb. 2, they found him in possession of marijuana.
That arrest came three days after he was convicted on a federal charge of using drugs while in possession of a gun. Now he's facing up to 30 years in prison.
Johnson was released from prison on his 21 st birthday - Aug. 11, 2005. He had what most murderers never get: a second chance. He had a terrific opportunity to make something of his life.
Who knows whether he will get another chance. When Johnson's sentencing hearing comes on Nov. 14, Benton County Prosecutor Van Stone said his office will be seeking the maximum sentence.
Assuming Johnson gets out of prison again, will he seize the next opportunity to remake his life ? Or will he choose to make a career out of crime ? What will he do next ?
We shudder to contemplate the answers to those questions.
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