The headline on the front page of the Sun Journal on March 17 read “Farmington kitten-killer gets 60 days in jail.”

I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or scream.

The kitten in the article was brutally beaten and then suffocated to death by William L. Griffin, the offender. For his efforts he was “punished” by being required to serve a whopping 60 days of an 18-month jail sentence. Then, he has to pay $250 of a $1,000 fine and will further be required to reimburse the Farmington police for a $40 veterinary bill.

The kitten is 100 percent dead. Griffin, by his plea, is 100 percent guilty of the crime. But Justice Joseph Jabar handed out 10 percent of a jail sentence as punishment and required Griffin to pay 25 percent of a fine.

What a laughable dispensation of justice.

What I want to know is, who paid for cleaning the courtroom after Justice Jabar finished hemorrhaging compassion and forgiveness to Griffin for his heinous crime against a poor and defenseless animal?

Why even bother prosecuting the crime if the punishment is to amount to no more than two winks and a nod?

Paul St. Jean, Lewiston