Patrick's misstep

IT WOULD have been more surprising if Deval Patrick had not responded with interest to an appeal for support from a convicted rapist whose 1984 trial included racist remarks by a juror . Like former Boston University president John Silber, historian Elie Wiesel, and others, Patrick wrote letters on Benjamin LaGuer's behalf. This page editorialized for a new trial in 1994. Patrick's mistake this week was to say initially that there was only one letter, when it turned out there were more, as well as a contribution he made to the cost of a DNA test for the convict.

The DNA test in 2002 provided evidence of LaGuer's guilt and Patrick has said he has played no role in the case since then. LaGuer contends the DNA evidence was contaminated and still proclaims his innocence.

Patrick's intervention in the LaGuer case has become an issue in a campaign in which his opponent, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, has tried to portray him as soft on crime. She has not made that charge stick. Patrick was not soft when, as an assistant attorney general in the Clinton Justice Department, he went after arsonists responsible for church-burnings in the South.

But the LaGuer case raises a different question about Patrick, a newcomer to Massachusetts politics who is still introducing himself to the electorate. His failure to disclose at an earlier point his contribution to the DNA test might have been just a memory glitch. In that case, his error was in not doing a more thorough review before describing his involvement with LaGuer. Or, more seriously, he might have not mentioned the contribution initially because he wanted to hide this deeper connection to LaGuer.

Yesterday, Patrick said it was a case of not looking into the matter more carefully before discussing it in public. ``My problem," he said, ``is I started talking about this before doing my homework." Lacking his canceled checks from before 2003, he said he cannot confirm or deny that his donation was $5,000, as LaGuer has said.

To get to where he is today, Patrick had help in overcoming the disadvantages of an impoverished childhood on the South Side of Chicago. He is only too aware that the intervention of individuals or organizations can level the playing fields of schools and courts. The court in which LaGuer was tried was tilted against him. The all-white jury that convicted him included one member who made racist comments, according to an affidavit by a fellow juror. ``The goddamned spic is guilty just sitting there," this juror reportedly said. ``Why even bother having a trial?"

Patrick made a justifiable decision in going to bat for LaGuer. But, intentionally or not, he erred by first making statements that did not reflect his full involvement. We hope it was a rookie's error.