A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

Post by basseq » Wed, Apr 08, 2015, 3:22 PM UTC

gootdude wrote: post #113

basseq wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really dislike "stacked" charges. Maybe that's the best way to differentiate between "a burglary", "a burglary where an innocent person was involved", "a burglary where 3 innocent people were involved," and "a burglary where 3 innocent people were involved and made to do stuff beyond 'getting robbed'". But assuming "equal" charges, is involving three people 3x as bad as involving one? Is "forcing people to move" 2x…

"... Two clerks were in the store, not just one. Lima-Marin and Clifton brought them both into a back room, forcing one onto the floor and the other to open the safe. “They put a gun to the back of my head and said, ‘This is where you’re going to die,’” one of the employees, Shane Ashurst, later recalled." https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/07/unfreed A bit more than simply asking them to move to another room…

Post by jsudhams » Wed, Apr 08, 2015, 4:43 PM UTC

akira2501 wrote: post #134

fixxer wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, the children! What about the children? What does it matter? He robbed a bank! Someone died! He chose to break his contract with society. If I did that, I would expect zero considerations be made for my two kids. It is my responsibility to never put them in such a position.

The children who are going to grow up without a father, yea, I'm thinking about them. Who's going to raise them? A single mother, if they're lucky. Think she's going to have an easy time re-marrying with an ex-con husband? How about getting a good job in the era of background checks? Think she was highly educated to begin with? Taxpayers at large are going to foot most of bill for this domestic disaster. Further, the…

Post by ecdavis » Wed, Apr 08, 2015, 5:27 PM UTC

jessaustin wrote: post #142

ecdavis wrote: post #140

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Great point, I didn't consider that.

It's surprising that none of the binge-watched documentaries touched on the pervasive practice of plea bargaining. Without it, we'd have far fewer people in prison.

Post by JoeAltmaier » Wed, Apr 08, 2015, 8:31 PM UTC

ctdonath wrote: post #180

seanflyon wrote: post #125

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Counterfeiting seems to me to be on par with fraud and theft. Could you explain why you consider it to be on par with treason?

The federal government's scale of "badness" differs from yours. Look at the sentences handed out. Just a little behind murder is counterfeiting, illegal weapons possession, and mail fraud. A fake $20? Unlicensed gun with barrel 1cm short of legal? a stamp-less letter using the return address as the intended destination? they all sound so trivial, yes. Yet...they cut at the foundation of the country: falsifying the re…

Post by fixxer » Wed, Apr 08, 2015, 11:21 PM UTC

stickfigure wrote: post #174

Torgo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it does fit the crime, and it's not arbitrary. You get charged with crimes you committed because you didn't want to be caught committing a crime. "I moved the body because I was being chased by the cops" isn't a good excuse. >As someone who was once an illegal immigrant This is perfectly analogous. People in countries illegally sometimes engage in identity theft, illegal labor, and a variety of other things s…

The problem here is that the punishment doesn't fit our collective understanding about the relative immorality of various crimes. Years ago there was a movie review site called moviecritic.com (a demo site for early collaborative filtering technology). After you rated a movie from 1 to 10, it would show you your rating for several other movies and ask you if you're sure. Half the time you would think "wait a minute,…