Judge provides a small dose of decency

Having just read the story of the Minneapolis man who killed a neighbor in a dispute over a lawn mower — “He deserved it; he called me a pedophile; I know I’m going to jail and I don’t care,” he reportedly said — we turn instead to a story that happened a couple of days ago for a little humanity.

At a hearing for a man who was likely to go to jail and who hadn’t yet met his one-month-old son, Judge Amber Wolf struck a blow for decency in a business where it can be hard to come by.

“I saw her try to hold the baby up when he came out for his case to be called with his attorney,” Judge Wolf told WDRB on Monday. “And I thought that he hadn’t seen that. And it occurred to me after we finished this case that he had not met his baby — who was 30 days old — and that he was not going to get an opportunity to meet his baby anytime in the near future.”

“It wasn’t really a judge thing,” she told the local TV station. “I think it was just more of a human thing.”