In Missouri, a guy was just sentenced to 527 years in prison for child sexual abuse. No problem with that.
But a man guilty of beating a man to death and preventing EMS from helping the guy received six months with probation.
Take a life and you get six months!!!!
Oh, I agree.
The judicial system did a terrible job with respect to Rodney King, Amidou Diallo, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, the Central Park Jogger Case, etc., etc., etc.
Oh...wait!...;-D...
I think it's time the Supreme Court got off their rear ends and created a computer program that all judges in the United States would be required to use. For example, drunk driving manslaughter has a punishment of x number of years, manslaughter with intent to murder = x number of years per victim. Assault=x number of years, Aggravated Assault = x number of years....and ALL Rapists...even the ones whose Daddies try to get them a reduced sentence= x number of years. That way...JUSTICE is equal across the board.
Hello d:
If you cherry pick, you can always find anomalies.. Like the Stanford rapist who only got 6 months.. But, in the main, we seem to lock up MORE people than any other country in the WORLD, and for a much LONGER period of time.
That's NOT to say it's working fine. It's NOT.. But, it's certainly NOT busted on the side of being too lenient.
excon
Hello Beer:
I LONG for the day when I can meet YOU on the battlefield.. Please wear a red hat..
excon
Every judicial system in the world is screwed up if you ask me. I don't know of one that isn't.
Hello r:
We tried that when we instituted mandatory sentences. But, that's not working out to well.. In my view, we ought to let judges BE judges. Every case is different, and every defendant is different. Therefore, we should focus on hiring GOOD judges, instead of telling them what to do..
excon
Given that the US accounts for just under 5% of the population, over 20% of the world's prisoners and has the 2nd highest incarceration rate in the world, despite declining crime rates over the past 20+ years...I'd say it is royally screwed up.
At 2.2+ million people, we incarcerate more than any other country in the world. This begs the question, are Americans really that much worse than any other people in the world? I don't think so.
Unfortunately, there are instances where a criminal gets a slap on the wrist and instances where someone receives a particularly harsh sentence that is unwarranted. These are the extremes, however. The bulk of the problem is that our system is highly politicized, and Americans are clueless as to the actual crime and incarceration rates. Fear fuels demands for tougher sentencing, despite the drop in crime rates.
http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All
I agree. Not to mention the brat that got off on the premise he was to rich to know any better.
There are to many in jail that should be working to repay for the damages they caused. Habitual criminals do need to be off the streets for violent crimes but to many non-violent people are doing time rather than paying restitution.
But when it comes to killing someone there needs to be a minimum time and not a few months either.
Stiff penalties for violent criminals I am ok with.
The problem with our judicial system is how judges, lawyers and law enforcement are rewarded.
They are not rewarded for getting it right but rather by putting someone in jail. To many judges are picked by lawyers. Lawyers love revolving doors. $$$.
Prosecutors that do not get convictions don't keep their jobs long.
Cops that don't make arrest in crimes don't get promoted.
Judges that give the max don't get good reviews and don't make friends.
Also, in several jurisdictions I know fines are divided up by the court, prosecutors office and law enforcement.
Not a good system of rewarding good judicial practice.
Sounds like it's the Missouri State system that is screwy. If you have citations for the cases or party names I would like to have a look. I'm nerdy that way. ;) Trial court opinions are not always published I know.
After glancing at the answers here, no one seems to know that criminal law is a state law issue. This is a Missouri criminal law question.
I will try and find a link to the stories. Cases are a few years old. Sentencing was announced last week and three weeks ago.
And, I'm just guessing here, for DECADES you've voted for Authoritarian politicians who promised to get "tough on crime", am I right?...;-D...
Welcome to the consequences of your own shortsightedness...;-D...
REALLY screwed up!!
I'd like to see links as well. We don't know what the circumstances were of the second case. Did he walk in on a rape or murder in progress? Was he defending himself or someone else? If this is the case, force probably would have been acceptable, though deadly force may or may not have been.
Here is the link to the original story on the child sexual abuse.
http://fox2now.com/2016/06/24/missouri-man-sentenced-to-527-years-for-child-sexual-abuse/
Here is the link for the beating death. I was mistake, he got no time for the killing. Only probation.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/5b09954399d541d99dcdf946177a0c56/FBN--Football-Stadium-Death
And here's a video explaining why the plea deal happened and why the judge was lenient: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article81081397.html
The person on trial was essentially trying to be a good Samaritan. A kid came out screaming for help that his dad was being robbed. A group of people, including the defendant responded. The man who was killed responded aggressively- swinging at people and telling them it essentially his right to steal whatever he wanted to. The defendant became physical. The injury that killed the guy was rare- not a result of someone using excessive force, but more a fluke of how his body was positioned and how the blow came. The defendant wasn't trying to kill him. Also, the defendant left the scene, so as far as I can tell, he didn't try to stop paramedics.
Are there two sides to this? Absolutely. The guy who died was likely drunk and had climbed into the wrong vehicle to sleep it off... This is all assumptions- we know he was sleeping in a vehicle that resembled one that was similar to someone he knew and had arrived at the game with. He could have gotten up and said "Oh, crap. I'm sorry. I thought this was my friend's car." Instead, he started telling everyone to shove it and became aggressive. Did he deserve to die for that? No. Not at all.
If you look at it from the way the media presented it- some guy pulling a sleeping man out of a car and beating him to death, it's horrific. That's not the way it went down.
That account of the death is way different than the TV news reporters version from bystanders at the time.Different from the news report when the sentence was announced.
I guess stories change when time goes by and during the trial.
No. I don't have a problem with stiff sentences. The two cases were just current in the news here.
Although kinda silly to sentence someone to 527 years. Life would suffice.
I guess the same could be said for the link JA posted. It came from the internet and the Kansas City Star no less.
I guess the question should be why when I post a question about sentencing you make it a political rant?
Politics had nothing to do with it.
sounds pretty screwed up
And then we get situations like the Stanford Rapist, who is getting a sentence of 6 months for raping an unconscious woman...which was witnessed by accident....otherwise she would have woken up and never have known what happened.....and the judge thinks 6 months is just great as a punishment for that slimy creep.
https://www.rainn.org/news/97-every-100-rapists-receive-no-punishment-rainn-analysis-shows
Race and economic status of the defendants, please ?
IT IS ONE HOT MESS.
