One last chance

Convicted sex offender Tracy McIntosh is back -- and that's the good news. The former Penn neurosurgery professor convicted of sexual assault in 2004 has returned from Italy after the hospital that he planned to work at revoked the job offer.

Officials at Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan, the hospital where McIntosh had planned to conduct research for six months, fired him after learning of the former professor's criminal history.

The bad news, however, is that McIntosh will not even return to being on house arrest.

The neurosurgery professor once sarcastically deemed "too important for jail" by the Philadelphia Daily News has been set free by Philadelphia Judge Rayford Means after serving only six months of house arrest. McIntosh was originally sentenced to 11-and-a-half to 23 months of house arrest.

Luckily, there is still another chance to make things right.

There is a hearing scheduled for February 8, where Judge Means would have decided whether to force McIntosh to return to the United States. The original point is now moot, but there is still an outstanding motion for Judge Means to recuse himself.

Means' actions so far have been an embarrassment to the Philadelphia legal system, and a new judge could bring some much-needed common sense the McIntosh case.

Criminal punishments are supposed to serve as a deterrent to other criminals -- but Means' lenient sentencing sends a message that some people are not just too important for jail, they are too important to even fulfill the light sentence they receive.

Judge Means has one last chance to bring respect back to himself and the legal system. This newspaper hopes he uses that opportunity.

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