Gov. Katie Hobbs recently denied clemency to Carl Buske, a man serving a 290-year sentence in Arizona for possession of child sexual abuse material. I want to be clear from the outset: the offense is serious and deserving of accountability. But 290 years? For a non-contact crime? That is not justice. That is vengeance disguised as law.

Mr. Buske’s case is well known to those who have followed Arizona’s sentencing patterns. Even the judge who sentenced him — bound by law to impose 10-year minimums on each of 29 counts, served consecutively — acknowledged at the time how extreme the outcome was. The original prosecuting attorney agreed. And most recently, the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency voted unanimously to recommend his release. A consensus like that among the judge, prosecutor and

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