UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison • Hacker News Board

Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison

#21

Post by marcusverus » Thu, Jul 04, 2019, 10:17 PM UTC

newdoctrine wrote: post #6

sschueller wrote: post #2

Why not 1000 years? These numbers are just stupid at this point. Just say life in prison.

The years demonstrate the amount and magnitude of the errors. If a punishment was life in prison, and the person had done two of those, that’s two life sentences. For example, if someone was facing 519 years for the same crimes as above professor, it would indicate the amount of which they have been accused of. A person can commit much more crime than a remaining lifetime worth(75 years realistic max)of imprisonment…

This matters because some convictions might be overturnedon appeal.

Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison

#22

Post by marcusverus » Thu, Jul 04, 2019, 10:25 PM UTC

mraison wrote: post #14

jfries wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't these large numbers just the sum of the maximum jail time for each of the charges? How are multiple charges handled in other countries?

At least in France, this article says that for similar concurrent charges (not sure how similarity is determined), the most important sentence is picked. So, max instead of sum. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?idArticl...

This seems odd, like buy one get one one free, but for crimes. If you murder a guy in France, you can burn his house down without additional penalty?

Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison

#23

Post by nikonyrh » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 8:03 PM UTC

mraison wrote: post #4

sschueller wrote: post #2

Why not 1000 years? These numbers are just stupid at this point. Just say life in prison.

From a non-US point of view, it is indeed a very surprising aspect of the US legal system. Making jail time linear seems like a strange fit for finite human lives. Are there many other legal systems in the world that work like this ?

Well in Finland you get a discount if you have committed crimes before.

There are cases when a person had raped someone and during a leave from the jail he had raped an other victim. The jail term for the second offence is less than usual due to the first sentence still not being fulfilled.

Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison

#24

Post by nikonyrh » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 8:04 PM UTC

marcusverus wrote: post #22

mraison wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in France, this article says that for similar concurrent charges (not sure how similarity is determined), the most important sentence is picked. So, max instead of sum. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?idArticl...

This seems odd, like buy one get one one free, but for crimes. If you murder a guy in France, you can burn his house down without additional penalty?

I am quite certain you can.