Discussion from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20343254
UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
11–20 of 24 posts
Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
#12Why not 1000 years? These numbers are just stupid at this point. Just say life in prison.
These numbers in headlines are frequently overblown: https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc...
Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
#13Why 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…
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Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 ?
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...
Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
#15Interesting that the charges include " failed to report income generated by the scheme on his tax returns."
Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
#16Earlier 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...
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Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
#17Earlier 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...
That means if a particular action is a crime under multiple articles, the most serious one is chosen. Separately committed crimes are different.
Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
#18Earlier 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...
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Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
#19Interesting that the charges include " failed to report income generated by the scheme on his tax returns."
Certainly not the first one being caught via the tax code [1].
Re: UCLA professor stole missile secrets for China, faces 219 years in prison
#20Why not 1000 years? These numbers are just stupid at this point. Just say life in prison.
Please get educated about how law works so you dont feel compelled to comment on things you obviously are not familiar with. There is a reason why we just dont say “life in prison”.
Please don't cross into personal attack or post unsubstantive comments here. If you know more, it would be great to share some of what you know, so we can all learn something. If you don't want to do that, it's also fine not to post.