What homeowner hasn't contemplated when mortgage payment time rolls around that life would be a lot sweeter if not for having to pay interest on the loan?

But who wants to move out of that snug house?

It works that way with a lot of things.

Earnestine Fletcher, who admitted taking $200,000 from the city of Decatur during eight years as an employee assigned to the landfill account, promised to pay back the stolen funds plus interest.

Now, Ms. Fletcher is asking Circuit Judge Glenn Thompson to excuse her from paying off the interest on her theft. She says she can't afford it because health problems prevent her from working more than 40 hours a week.

Judge Thompson asked Mayor Lynn Fowler to decide whether to release Ms. Fletcher from her interest obligation.

Not to belabor the point, but wasn't Ms. Fletcher already released from a rather large public obligation, namely spending several years behind bars? Folks have gone to jail for years for stealing a lot less.

Ms. Fletcher spent two days in jail.

Under questioning by Judge Thompson, Ms. Fletcher couldn't, or wouldn't, say on what she spent the 200 grand.

She says she was a single parent with an ill child and "things went bad."

By our calculations, $200,000 -- and some estimates are higher -- spread out over eight years would add up to about $25,000-a-year in added cash flow.

Unless she recklessly threw the money around, she should be able to answer Judge Thompson's questions.

Mayor Fowler says he needs to familiarize himself with the case before making a decision. Why is this the mayor's decision? He wasn't in office when the thefts became known and besides that, does he routinely decide the fate of other convicted felons who have made off with public funds?

The facts are that many single mothers with burdens far greater than Ms. Fletcher's do not resort to theft to solve their problems. Mercy can't keep falling like the gentle rain.