A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early • Hacker News Board

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#71

Post by venomsnake » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 8:57 PM UTC

nknighthb wrote: post #65

venomsnake wrote: post #49

> and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment. And why is he not rubberstamping such when the prison situation in US is cruel, sadly not unusual and definitely unjust.

The offenses were not against the United States. This man is in a Colorado prison for crimes under Colorado law. The President has no authority in this case.

There are enough federal inmates with good reasons for pardon. And mass pardons of federal prison could hint the governors about their power too.

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#72

Post by curun1r » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 8:59 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #4

Talk about cruel punishments, locking up someone for two fucking robberies without any deaths for nearly a century is unreasonable, cruel and defies everything our civilization stands for. But hey, private prison operators need to make money and police/DA/any part of the justice system profits from being "tough on crime"... Thank God I'm German, even if you end up killing someone you'll at most get 15 years (okay, th…

Sometimes timing is everything. The article mentioned that the crime was committed near the end of a violent period in that region and the public was giving politicians the message that they needed to crack down on crime. So what would have normally been a crime that merited a decade or so of prison time received a near-life sentence. He was essentially being punished for the actions of the criminals that came before him.

It reminds me a bit of something that happened to the brother of a former colleague of mine. He was an animal rights activist that allegedly, in protest, set off a bomb at an animal testing facility. The bomb went off at a time when no one was there. If he'd done it a few years earlier, it wouldn't have received much attention. But it happened shortly after 9/11 and the sentiment in the country was to stop terrorism at all costs. And so he's been on the FBI's most wanted list ever since. Don't get me wrong, setting off bombs is a serious matter, but I have a hard time believing that a stupid juvenile prank that only resulted in property damage puts someone in the top 10 most dangerous people the FBI could be pursuing.

Timing can be a bitch and the justice that someone receives is often more about the vengeance that society is yearning for rather than what the offender deserves.

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#73

Post by beamatronic » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 9:00 PM UTC

zerocrates wrote: post #30

waterfowl wrote: post #29

The insanity of the charges/sentencing reminds me of a passage from The Hot House (which is excellent, Pete Earley somehow got permission to go mingle with prisoners at USP Leavenworth for a year and write about it). A Bank Robber, 45 'They originally charged me with murder, kidnapping, and bank robbery, but I'm really just a bank robber with really bad luck. You see, my buddy and me were robbing this bank, and when…

The felony murder rule is somewhat controversial but nevertheless nearly universal in the United States.

Does it always override the Good Samaritan law?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law

"Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated."

Does the law allow you to act as a Good Samaritan in the course of committing a felony?

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#74

Post by kpil » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 9:00 PM UTC

merpnderp wrote: post #56

qiqing wrote: post #27

The U.S. incarcerates more people than China. Not per capita, mind you. More total people. If ever there's a stellar example of the kind of disaster that can result from privatizing a government function, this is it. Private prisons have a strong profit motive to increase the number of people behind bars until we have the kind of situation we have today in the U.S. These are folks who can afford to pay lobbyists to c…

I don't know that you can directly compare the two judicial systems. Especially when China executes roughly 61 times as many prisoners - often for petty crimes from repeat offenders. That being said the US puts far too many people in jail, often for far too long of sentences.

Still, I think there is something fundamentally flawed with a society where 40-50 % of all men have been arrested by the police by age 23.

I tried to find some comparable statistics and I found that 5-10 % of all 15-20 year old males in Sweden have been -suspected- for a crime. I doubt that all of them were actually arrested.

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#75

Post by venomsnake » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 9:03 PM UTC

happyscrappy wrote: post #58

kazinator wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He should have ran for the Canadian border the day he was released by mistake. (Probably wouldn't have helped since we extradict.) In Canada, you can kill someone and get only six years. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/killer-of-thai-welder... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/glowatski-sentenced-to-six-yea... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/northern-sask-man... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundlan…

If I wanted to murder someone what would be the best country to do it? Obviously not the US. Edit: I mean get caught, do my time and be on my way.

Antarctica?

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#76

Post by barking » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 9:05 PM UTC

I would like to see clemency for this man but I don't view the european system as being necessarily superior to the USA. In my country there are a lot of avowedly unrepentant murderers walking the streets after 'life' sentences that in some cases lasted less than a decade. The state has decided to show compassion. It's easy to forgive someone when you're not the victim or one of those who loved a victim. Personally I feel that if you premeditatedly take another person's life you should have no expectation of ever being able to live outside a prison again.

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#77

Post by unreal37 » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 9:08 PM UTC

There was an element of "pre-crime" to the original sentences. Not just this case, but the article alludes to an entire program to sentence young people who have multiple brushes with the law to life long periods. Taking young teenagers off the streets for the rest of their lives purely on the basis that they are likely to continue committing crimes if they were released again and not for actual crimes committed.

The COP program was done away with, but someone should revisit those horrific sentences given to teens that effectively take their entire lives away. Guilty, yes. But 90+ years for a case where no one got hurt? Wow.

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#78

Post by ctdonath » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 9:10 PM UTC

waterfowl wrote: post #29

The insanity of the charges/sentencing reminds me of a passage from The Hot House (which is excellent, Pete Earley somehow got permission to go mingle with prisoners at USP Leavenworth for a year and write about it). A Bank Robber, 45 'They originally charged me with murder, kidnapping, and bank robbery, but I'm really just a bank robber with really bad luck. You see, my buddy and me were robbing this bank, and when…

What's the problem with the charges? Felony murder is serious business. Yeah, he didn't choose to kill anyone by his own hand directly, but he wantonly created the felonious circumstances which directly led to someone's death. As for the "kidnapping", that's an understandable edge case for the legal definition entailing taking a human body (which may or may not have been legally dead at that particular point) without permission.

I say committing major felonies sucks. Doesn't matter if he thought bank robbery was "harmless", it is and the consequences demonstrate why. Throw the law library at him.

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#79

Post by ctdonath » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 9:12 PM UTC

beamatronic wrote: post #73

zerocrates wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The felony murder rule is somewhat controversial but nevertheless nearly universal in the United States.

Does it always override the Good Samaritan law? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law "Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated." Does the law allow you to act as a Good Samaritan in the course of committing a felony?

It might protect you from breaking the heart attack victim's ribs while delivering CPR, but it won't protect you from inducing a heart attack in the bank teller you tried to feloniously rob.

Re: A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

#80

Post by DangerousPie » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 9:19 PM UTC

barking wrote: post #76

I would like to see clemency for this man but I don't view the european system as being necessarily superior to the USA. In my country there are a lot of avowedly unrepentant murderers walking the streets after 'life' sentences that in some cases lasted less than a decade. The state has decided to show compassion. It's easy to forgive someone when you're not the victim or one of those who loved a victim. Personally I…

If this was really an issue, shouldn't the murder rates in European countries be a lot higher than in the US?

According to Wikipedia [0] the "intentional homicide" rate in the US is 4.7, in the UK 1.0 and in Germany 0.8. Shouldn't those numbers be reversed if the European system was releasing "avowedly unrepentant murderers" back onto the streets?

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona...