It’s become quite the ‘en vogue’ thing to criticize the justice system, in particular judges who set low bail and who seem to run a revolving door of putting dangerous criminals back on our streets.

No less an authority than Upper Darby top cop Mike Chitwood recently blew a gasket over the low bail granted to a suspect in a weekend case in which several of his officers were assaulted.

For that reason we hope all the critics of the justice system take note of a little justice handed down at the Delaware County Courthouse yesterday.

As fate would have it, the cased stemmed from a particularly heinous incident on Chitwood’s turf, in Upper Darby.

Ramir Steve stood before Judge Barry Dozor convicted in the senseless shooting death of cab driver Gregory Cunningham.

Steve called the cab under the ruse of needing a ride. He intended to hold up the driver. Cunningham responded. He paid for it with his life.
Steve fatally shot Cunningham and commandeered his cab.

And all this occurred on Christmas Eve. Cunningham’s family was left to pick up the pieces of their life as the rest of the world celebrated the holiday.

That was in 2007. They have been waiting almost two years for justice.
It arrived in Dozor’s courtroom yesterday.

The judge indicated he wanted to send Steve a message. Dozor sentenced Steve to life behind bars without parole. And for good measure slapped on another 13 to 26 years – to run consecutively to the life sentence, to pretty much ensure that Steve will never walk free again.

Dozor wanted to send Steve a message. He did exactly that.

He also sent a message to those who lose a loved one to senseless violence, to those who would so callously take a human life, and to those who believe the system too often works in favor of the accused.

Justice may be blind, and it may not always be swift.

But there is justice. Yesterday Judge Barry Dozor delivered a little bit of it in a Delco courtroom.