Sentencing Nonsense

[Brutuskend]

In December, a federal appeals court upheld Santos Reyes' 26-year prison sentence for the crime of trying to take the written portion of a driver's test for someone else (a sentence required by California's three-strikes law).

And paroled sex offender Paul Frederick Goodwin, 39, of Melbourne, Fla., will be sentenced this month for purse-snatching; at his earlier parole hearing, Goodwin was so confident about going straight that he agreed that any further conviction of any kind would send him back to prison for 999 years.

And in December, a Youth Court judge in Vancouver, British Columbia, went beyond guidelines to hard-sentence a now-19-year-old man for the fatal baseball-bat bludgeoning of a gay man; the hard sentence is two years in custody plus one under supervised release. [Associated Press, 12-31-03] [Associated Press, 1-9-04] [Globe and Mail (Toronto), 12-19-03]

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
In December, a federal appeals court upheld Santos Reyes' 26-year prison sentence for the crime of trying to take the written portion of a driver's test for someone else (a sentence required by California's three-strikes law).

What did he do the first 2 times?

Should probably be in P&N.

 

[Danman]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend

And paroled sex offender Paul Frederick Goodwin, 39, of Melbourne, Fla., will be sentenced this month for purse-snatching; at his earlier parole hearing, Goodwin was so confident about going straight that he agreed that any further conviction of any kind would send him back to prison for 999 years.

Bwhahaha, that's where I grew up, just recently moved from there!

 

[SuperTool]

Yeah, let's issue a $15B bond so we can keep driving test cheaters in jail for 26 years. I voted against that bond issue, and I suggest everyone does the same.

 

[ucdnam]

You need to give better reasons for people not to vote for the bond measure. As it sit's now, it's not passing, but if it doesn't then, there won't be funds for more facilities, guards, or much of anything else and they'll all get out before they're suppose to, not just the white collar criminals and those with lesser crimes.

Originally posted by: SuperTool
Yeah, let's issue a $15B bond so we can keep driving test cheaters in jail for 26 years. I voted against that bond issue, and I suggest everyone does the same.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Three strikes laws generally can lead to really weird-sounding outcomes like that. I don't agree with them as a general matter. IMO, judges can and should sentence violent/sexual assault crimes appropriately in the first place, and avoid wasting jail cells on nonviolent drug offenders and people who take driving tests for other people. A lot of "anti-crime" legislation is entirely political, and does little or nothing to make society safer. I tend to think 3-strikes laws fall into that category.