"Only the Media Got the Story Right."

I'm generally pretty harsh on the media around here. They usually deserve it. But the quote above shows that the media can, and does, do good; it was spoken by Linda Paey, the wife of convict Richard Paey, to Miami Herald reporters Marc Caputo and Phil Long (the photo is by Long and a larger version and more detail are available at the Herald). 

Richard Paey was just freed -- pardoned -- by Florida Governor Charlie Crist. He had been convicted of drug trafficking for using fake prescriptions to get a small mountain of painkillers -- which he then ingested to fight chronic pain. 

In prison, doctors found they had to hook him to a morphine drip for his pain to be manageable. Why prosecutors went all out to nail Paey and got him sentenced to decades in prison is not clear; real drug dealers get gentler treatment all the time. 

While Paey's prison ordeal is over, the larger ordeal, the razor wire cage of pain in which he's confined, continues. But, ''I feel pretty good. I feel pretty good,'' he told the reporters. His lawyers had only asked that Crist commute his sentence; the pardon was a welcome surprise. 

In addition to the Herald reporters, props to blogger Radley Balko who stayed on top of this case. And certainly Charlie Crist and his AG Bill McCollum deserve some credit for the pardon. It was the right thing to do, so it shouldn't be as rare as it is.

I generally support drug laws, as do Crist and McCollum; Balko is among the many who generally oppose them. I think it is more incumbent on us supporters than it is on opponents like Balko, to prevent Richard Paey type miscarriages of justice; and to act to correct them, when they do happen, with all speed. 

The bottom line is that Richard's wife and four kids have him at home. 

Here's hoping that Paey now has the prescriptions he needs... and here's hoping that medical science finds some more permanent and gentle solution to this kind of disabling chronic pain, sooner rather than later.