A lot of money has gone missing at local colleges and universities lately. A former administrator at Washington University was indicted for allegedly embezzling $300,000. A former University of Missouri employee admitted to stealing $781,000, and just a few weeks ago an employee of St. Louis Community College was accused of embezzling $5.4 million.
Another recent case, involving a former academic administrator at Webster University, got the Riverfront Times’ Doyle Murphy asking a question that is at the heart of the justice system every day: What constitutes just punishment?
Murphy’s latest feature for RFT digs into this question and many more, juxtaposing Deborah Pierce’s sentence (to pay back the $375,000 she stole from Webster University and write a journal for 60 days) with the sentences handed down in other specific crime cases in the region.
On Friday’s St. Louis on the Air, Murphy joined guest host Ruth Ezell to share what he’s learned about how the justice system, as he writes, “doles out punishment – and the way each case can have a logic of its own.”
Listen to the conversation:
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Alex Heuer, Evie Hemphill and Lara Hamdan. The engineer is Aaron Doerr and the call screener is Charlie McDonald.
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