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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCrime does pay....
RALEIGH, N.C. A man sentenced for stealing a TV nearly three decades ago walked out of prison Friday as a free man.
In 1970, Junior Allen went to prison for stealing a $140 TV set from 87-year-old Lessie Johnson in Johnston County.
Johnson's family said he roughed her up on his way out. However, nothing about an assault came up at trial nor was Allen ever charged with one.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/117412/
There are a number of benefits to a plea bargain, not the least of which is the government is much more amenable to drafting the deal in such a way as to reach a mutually agreeable sentence. The recent guilty plea by Drew K. Brownstein to an insider trading charge illustrates how a potential sentence can be reduced by leaving out transactions that lower the gain from the illegal trading.
Mr. Brownstein, a Denver-based hedge fund manager known as Bo, pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud based on information he received from Drew Peterson about the pending acquisition of Mariner Energy by the Apache Corporation. Mr. Peterson received the information from his father, H. Clayton Peterson, who was on Mariners board when he learned about the impending deal.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/the-vanishing-2-5-million-in-insider-trading-profits/
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)spanone
(135,632 posts)one_voice
(20,043 posts)Our system is screwed up in a lot of ways.
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)maggiesfarmer
(297 posts)it's better to be sentenced by a federal court in 2011 than a NC state court in 1970.
it's better to not have a prior arrest record for violent crimes when being sentenced.
it's best if the family of the victim doesn't testify as to how the accused committed assault in the course of the robbery.
it's best to not commit over 60 violations while imprisoned if trying to get paroled.
In seriousness, I appreciate that the US criminal justice system has a lot of flaws and is susceptible to many kinds of bias, not the least of which is racial. However, this graphic is really comparing the proverbial 'apples and oranges'.
Suggestions:
find data comparing average sentences, by race, from the same court for the same crimes.
find data with a larger sample size than 2.
one_voice
(20,043 posts)I'm shocked by your response.
maggiesfarmer
(297 posts)shocked because I actually spent a couple minutes looking up the back story?
shocked because I believe public policy should be based on how it impacts the masses and not on an emotional appeal based on two extreme, unrelated data points?
one_voice
(20,043 posts)go ahead and run with that.
treestar
(82,383 posts)This is not a good argument to follow.
Or the potential for violence. Breaking into someone's home is far more dangerous than paper crimes.
And don't claim I'm "defending" the one per center. I am defending the laws making it more serious to break into someone's house rather than move money on paper.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... not minimizing the violence issue, but we need to also recognize that people are harmed by the actions of white collar crime.
edited for type
dana_b
(11,546 posts)there will be many that will suffer because of that one person's greed. Who knows where/how they will end up and they will most likely NOT get a chance to testify in court.
I don't say there should not be penalties, severe ones, for white collar crimes, too.
Just that the criminal law is first concerned with bodily harm, with harm to property coming in second, which is rational IMO.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Romulox
(25,960 posts)Of course the fact that there will be a justification is taken as read.
one_voice
(20,043 posts)what about the man that kills himself because someone just moved paper?