Brian Keith Balentine said he had paid his debt to society.

But a Montgomery County jury thought otherwise on Thursday, sentencing the paroled murderer to life in prison for shoplifting five compact discs last year from a Wal-Mart in Conroe.

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6533478.html

Strange how defense counsel seems to miss the point.

The headline of the story says "Paroled Killer Gets Life for Shoplifting." Is it really that hard to get it right? Robbery is NOT shoplifting.

I guess the purpose of the headline is to make the result (the life sentence) seem absurd when in reality it is more than appropriate.

That's why prosecutors should write their own press releases and structure the story for media.

JB,

As you well know with the Statesman south of you, even the most effectively written press release gets manipulated by a liberal newspaper. For the press relase I actually wrote, go to

http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2009/07/20/woodlands_villager/news/wv-n_life_sentence_pr.txt


PG

It's nice that the press release actually made it on a media site of some type, even if not MSM.

Apparently the Chronicle's readers didn't have a problem with the sentence, at least that seems to be the sentiment of many of the those readers who commented on the article.

Janette A

My Goodness, PG. After reading quotes from your boss, it sounds like the defendant deserved his sentence. Bravo.

Our prosecutors found the original investigators from the 1984 murder who came back and testified as to the grisly details of the 1984 murder. The victims were on their way home from their honeymoon when they were kidnapped. The husband gave his life to prevent his new wife from being sexually assaulted. It was an amazing story. The foreman of thejury told our folks that "after hearing the details of the 1984 murder, the life sentence was easy."

PG