Verdict

"The brutality and senselessness defy understanding," we said of Tahliek Taliaferro's killing last year. So, to many, did the verdict returned by the jury -- involuntary manslaughter, despite the use of a firearm, which is not an involuntary act.

The fact that the defendants were white and the victim black fed suspicions. If two black males had killed a white student, would they have received the same seeming leniency? Such concerns have prompted protests and an inquiry by the FBI.

On Thursday Circuit Judge Thomas Warren imposed the longest sentences he could on Joel and Ethan Parrish. The punishment cannot assuage the grief of Taliaferro's loved ones, but it might help ease the tensions the case has fueled.

Easing tensions is not, of course, the purpose of the judicial system. That is a job for the community as a whole. The courts' job is to mete out justice. In homicide cases the system is almost destined to fall short of the abstract ideal. In Powhatan it might have fallen shorter than usual, were it not for Warren's justifiably firm hand.