Last week, after a hearing in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ronnie Polaneczky, a columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News declared “Thank a Federal Prosecutor Day.”

Polaneczky’s gratitude is based on the persistence of two federal prosecutors who refused to let an unjustice go unchallenged — and who are working to see former state Sen. Vincent Fumo serve more time in prison.

Based on exchanges between the federal prosecutors, Fumo’s lawyer and a three-judge panel at the U.S. Appeals Court, Fumo could finally face justice — meaning punishment to fit his crimes.

Fumo, a one-time Philadelphia power broker, is serving a 55-month sentence in federal prison for misuse of public funds and resources of a nonprofit organization. But the case against Fumo and the scope of his crimes should have landed him in prison for 10 years or more, based on sentencing guidelines.

Fumo, considered the most powerful state senator before his indictment, instead was sentenced to a prison term that shocked the public and motivated the federal prosecutors to seek a resentencing.

After a five-month trial in 2009, Fumo was found guilty on 137 counts of corruption and fraud. Prosecutors produced evidence that revealed a consistent pattern of, as Polaneczky wrote, “looting a nonprofit, using his government staff as personal serfs and then lying to feds about all of it.”

Prosecutors showed that Fumo misspent about $4 million, considering the costs of state employees and services, plus the misuse of the nonprofit’s assets. Defense lawyers, however, suggested that Fumo’s crimes involved only $2.4 million, a convenient figure, since crimes involving more than $2.5 million earn longer prison time.

When sentencing Fumo, U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter said he considered Fumo’s civic and charitable work. Buckwalter also noted 300 letters from Fumo’s friends and political pals urging compassion.

Fumo excelled at working the angles, to gain political and personal benefit from much of his civic and charity work. During his trial, it was learned Fumo often spoke with staffers of his preference for spending “OPM” or other people’s money (usually taxpayers) whenever possible. And he managed that with great skill, using state employees to supervise renovation of his mansion and to manage his Harrisburg-area farm. His state staffers also ran many personal errands for Fumo. The nonprofit he created, Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, was used to purchase hundreds of thousand of dollars in tools and equipment delivered to his various homes.

His crimes should have put him in prison for 121 to 151 months.

For comparison, former Philadelphia Treasurer Cory Kemp was sentenced to 10 years for selling his influence for some Super Bowl tickets and improvements to his home.

Clearly, Fumo’s prison sentence should be longer.

Many Pennsylvanians, at least in this part of the state, might not know Fumo’s name. He was a powerful and well-connected political boss for decades in Philadelphia, where he was both revered and feared.

Fumo’s abuse of the public trust was extreme and his pattern of corruption was part of a years-long pattern, not an isolated incident. And once he learned of the federal investigation, he scrambled to have hard drives and the memories of staffers’ cell phones erased.

Justice was not served when Fumo was sentenced to just 55 months in prison. But now, thanks to the persistence of two federal prosecutors, the once-powerful politician who embodied the Harrisburg culture of entitlement and arrogance might finally face punishment equal to his crimes.