The reason we were supposed to vote for Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. for governor was not solely for juvenile justice reform, as Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan suggests ("Democrats chide Ehrlich for problems at juvenile jails," March 31).
The main reason was to keep Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend from becoming governor, as she had done very little of significance as lieutenant governor except campaign for governor.
And the juvenile justice system has been troubled for so long that it will obviously take more than the two years Mr. Ehrlich has been in office to completely repair it.
Wendy Hannon
Baltimore
Cochran's advocacy will be sorely missed
In today's society, criminal defense attorneys such as Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. are not always popular; their job is widely viewed as "getting the defendant off" ("Simpson trial made attorney `larger than life,'" March 30).
I have come to see that job as making sure the prosecution does its job: proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and doing it by the book.
In a criminal justice system that prosecutes children, the mentally challenged and the emotionally unstable as competent adults, and a society that grants itself the right to decide someone "deserves" to die, we need all of the Johnnie Cochrans we can get.
He will be missed.
Ramona B. Ford
Gwynn Oak
