Calif. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, a Democrat, doesn't consider Stewart Pearson to be a criminal. Pearson is the son of one of her aides, and upon hearing of his conviction she wrote a letter to the judge presiding over the case, pleading to him for leniancy. So, just what did Pearson do?

Last July, a 20-year-old thug named Stewart Pearson soaked a rag in toilet bowl cleanser and Ajax and used it to smother 17-year-old Tina Phan while she was sleeping in her Terra Linda, Calif., home. Tina gasped, trying to fend off Pearson, but he wielded a knife and overpowered her. Pearson raped and brutalized her. According to Phan, Pearson told her he had committed the same crime before and planned to do it again. Phan bravely persisted in pressing charges against Pearson. He initially denied raping Phan, but admitted guilt last fall.

Pearson, who in Rep. Woolsey's mind is "not a criminal", was sentenced to 8 years in prison.