EDITORIAL: No justice in the Sled murder case

They never made it. A block from home on the 4300 block of Larchwood Avenue, Eugene "Sultan" Harrison approached them and tried to grab the woman's purse. Sled -- the father of a young son from a previous marriage -- fought back. During the ensuing struggle, Bridgette Black emerged from a waiting car driven by Yvette Stewart and stabbed Sled to death. The three then quickly fled. After a police investigation and lengthy and complicated criminal prosecutions, the final chapter of the Sled case was written this week as the last of the three people charged in connection to his brutal murder was sentenced to jail. But justice was not served. Because of failures in the criminal justice system and unreasonable decisions by the judges overseeing the trials, the two women and one man collectively responsible for Sled's death are not receiving the punishment they deserve. Harrison, Black and Stewart could serve a combined total of only 27 years in jail -- maybe even less if the judge agrees at a hearing today to reduce Stewart's sentence so it is more in line with Black's. Even if they are imprisoned for the maximum possible time -- which is almost a laughable impossibility in this age of quick paroles -- they would only be locked up for 14, 12 and 30 years, respectively. Prosecutors initially believed they had a strong first-degree murder case against the three and planning to try them together. That charge became second-degree murder -- a charge possible in Pennsylvania as long as each defendant played some role in the events surrounding the killing -- due to the legal definition of the crime the three committed. Despite the good news that Black decided to plead guilty 2 1/2 months before the trial's start to stabbing Sled to death and testify against the other two, the open-and-shut case quickly unraveled. At the first day of Harrison and Stewart's trial, the judge ruled that the two defendants must be tried separately due to a legal technicality -- making it more difficult for the prosecution to prove that the three acted together and that their crimes amounted to a murder charge. The end result was that although the three all participated in the events surrounding the killing, only two were convicted of murder at all. And because Black received a reduced sentence as a result of factors ranging from being abused as a child to having a drug addiction, the woman who actually killed Sled ended up with the lightest sentence. Furthermore, the judges should have recognized that Sled's death would likely not have occurred without the actions of each of the three defendants. Just as they share responsibility for the murder, each should have paid a steeper penalty. · Though half of current Penn undergraduates weren't even around when the Sled murder occurred, we're all feeling the repercussions. Out of the tragedy of murder came a strong and swift police response. Since the fall 1996 crime wave --Ewhich included the shooting that injured then-senior Patrick Leroy (an incident which, by way of comparison, resulted in cumulative sentences of 60-140 years in prison for the three people responsible for that crime and a string of robberies) and was capped off by Sled's murder -- the University has demonstrated its commitment to increasing safety around campus. For example, the Division of Public Safety implemented a number of proactive measures that significantly reduced crime within its jurisdiction, and Penn took a lead role in creating the University City District to make the neighborhoods surrounding campus cleaner and safer. But despite the positive long-term results, nothing can make up for this injustice to those who loved Sled and the entire University community. As Assistant District Attorney Mark Gilson noted: "No one is being held responsible for the death of Vladimir Sled."