They are the Tony Maurice Gorham story and the Jacob Davis story. Both of these stories show maybe the justice system is more just than we think they are.

Gorham received double life sentences for the Mother’s Day weekend murders last year and Davis received a suspended sentence that will force him to walk a tightrope or be faced with a long prison sentence for a series of break-ins and larcenies that ended with him allegedly setting fire to a church hymnal on a stove at Stanley White Presbyterian Church.

For those yelling to fry Gorham, let’s be honest, there will probably never be another execution in North Carolina for a long time, as the death penalty has become tied up in a Michigan State University study on the state’s Racial Justice Act.

We don’t think, however, the families of Maxine McCrary and Nancy Burgess were thinking about that study when they opted to allow prosecutors and defense attorneys to forge a plea arrangement that means Gorham will never walk out of prison alive.

As we yell and scream for death we are forgetting what happens in most death sentence cases, cases that even before the Michigan State University study were tied up in appeals and future cases that could be tied up indefinitely, including the Shelby Salmon and the Applebee’s murder case.

We are forgetting long appeals, we are forgetting the possibility of re-sentencing hearings, we are forgetting the emotional toll reliving the horror the facts of some of these cases will have on family members, who, when cases have to be retried, would have to hear them over and possibly over some more.

Halifax County District Attorney Melissa Pelfrey knew this Thursday. So did Gorham’s defense team. The case was a lock for investigators and the family of the two women didn’t want to hear gruesome details that so many of us love to hear. Pelfrey’s only comment, out of respect for the families, was that both women were stabbed multiple times but death was instant.

The families only wanted justice and we believe they got it with a sentence that assures them Gorham will never harm innocent people again.

The Davis sentence is another masterpiece of negotiation, although it might not seem like it on the surface.

It is a sentence that makes someone with a troubled past so accountable for what they did that if they look the wrong way they are in prison for some 158 months, some 13 years. For someone in their twenties, that’s a long time.

We don’t assume we know anything about Davis’ character. What we do know is for some people the probationary sentence he received would set them up for automatic failure with its list of do’s and don’ts that will force him to walk the upright path of a saint.

We know the justice system isn’t perfect, but on Thursday, we believe, the justice system was as perfect as it could be — Editor.