By Kathy Wray Coleman, Associate Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com
AKRON, Ohio-An attorney for former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora (pictured) and at least one community activist out of the Cleveland, Oh. area say that the 28-year federal prison sentence handed to the former chairperson of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party on Tuesday for convictions by an Akron federal jury in March of racketeering and 32 other corruption-related charges is absurd at best.
"Notwithstanding the crimes that Jimmy Dimora was convicted of, I think the punishment was too severe," said Larry Bresler, a Cleveland community activist and inactive attorney who teaches classes on community organizing at Case Western Reserve University and leads the Northeast Ohio Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and Organize Ohio. "People that commit murder rarely are sentenced to 28 years."
Dimora, 57, faced more than 30 years in prison for his non-violent white collar crimes.
He appeared for sentencing handcuffed and in an orange jail jumpsuit.
He did not take the stand at his eight week trial before U.S. District Court Judge Sara Lioi (pictured), who came under fire last year from community activists for handing former Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven Terry, who is Black, a maximum six year sentence and giving Bridget McCafferty, a White former common pleas judge who faced 50 years in prison, only 14 months.