Salem Judge Catches Heat For Reference To Executing Drug Users

SALEM, MA -- A Salem District Court judge with a history of questionable comments from the bench made another one Tuesday. Judge Richard Mori was overseeing the court appearance of a defendant in a drug case who missed a January 31 court date because he was distraught after three friends died of drug overdoses in a 10-day span. Mori reportedly expressed sympathy for the man and then made a comment that he later said was meant to encourage the man to avoid the same fate.

"Chairman Mao used to execute the drug users. We don't have to do that. The users are killing themselves," Mori said according to the Sale News, which first reported this story.

The newspaper did not identify the defendant, who told the judge he had been off drugs for four months. After the hearing Mori tried to clarify his comment and noted he had seen many cases dismissed because the defendants died from a drug overdose before the cases were closed.

"It was meant to spur, to encourage him," Mori told the newspaper. "I'm trying everything I can to keep people alive. I'm sorry if it may have been taken the wrong way. I certainly am not suggesting we adopt that policy."

It wasn't the first time Mori has caught heat for something he said from the bench. In 1997, he was formally reprimanded for comment he made while hearing a 1995 case in Lowell District Court. Mori later apologized in a letter to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly for saying ""We ought to send them right back to the killing fields," in reference to a campaign of mass killings by the Khmer Rouge's in Cambodia in the 1970s.

For more on this story, see the Salem News. Subscribe to Salem Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).