"After serving more than five years for the VCR offense, a federal judge released Ramirez in 2002 under reasoning the appeals court affirmed Monday."


This is nothing short of laziness. There are a bunch of ways to recast this.

"A federal judge released Ramirez in 2002 after he had served more than five years in prison for stealing a $199 VCR. The appeals court agreed with the judge's reason for overturning the sentence."

"Ramires, who had served more than five years of a 25-year sentence, was released in 2002 by a Federal judge who ruled that the punishment did not fit the crime."

It's really so easy to get it right, and actually (to me) rather harder to get it wrong, but then most of us understand the finer nuances of English, something the reporter obviously did not.


TEd