So much for the rule of law

The governor of North Carolina is making a terrible (but popular) mistake. But first, some background:

Back in the 1970's, the law in North Carolina was clear: a "life sentence" actually meant 80 years, and with credits for good behavior could be as little as 35 years.

Many people thought that was too lenient, so in the 1980's the law was changed. First, the law was amended to remove the credits for those convicted of the most serious crimes. Later, it was changed so that in some cases a life sentence would actually mean the person convicted would stay behind bars until he died.

The problem is that the state prison system applied these new rules retroactively. That is, until Bobby Bowden filed an appeal with the state's Supreme Court. Bowden (not the Florida State football coach) was sentenced to death in 1975 for murdering two people during the robbery of a convenience store. The supreme court later took Bowden off death row, and sent his case back to be retried. He was given a life sentence.

Bowden filed an appeal four years ago, claiming that according to the laws at the time of his sentencing, he had served his time and should be released. 13 days ago, the state Supreme Court upheld an earlier appeals court ruling that agreed with Bowden.

Now, as a result of that ruling, Bowden and 19 others are scheduled to be released from prison. They have served their time and there is no law that will allow the state to continue to hold them.

Governor Beverly Purdue suggested on Thursday that she will defy the courts, going to jail if necessary, to stop these 20 murderers and rapists from being released. By the end of the day she had backed down, opting instead to have her lawyers go through the fine print of sentencing laws to look for loopholes and make sure the "good-time" credits have been properly applied. In the meantime, the state Attorney General has also asked Federal authorities to try to find some federal law under which these prisoners can be held.

It's hard to have sympathy for the prisoners. They did horrible things and deserved their punishment. Under today's laws, there would be no question; they would all die in prison. But they weren't convicted and sentenced under today's laws. They have served their time and should be released, no matter how much we hate the idea. Because the alternative is to live in a world where our leaders are dictators, who get to change the rules whenever they don't like the outcome.

That should scare us much more than the idea of releasing a few bad guys.