This article was found at Popurls.com... a site that aggregates news stories...
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/23-petty-crimes-prison-life-without-parole
Obviously, people that are sentenced to life in prison for non-violent crimes are not first offenders.
Without knowing the extenuating circumstances, life sentences for these "crimes" appear draconian.
According to the article, people have been sentenced to life in prison for...
- Quote :
* Possessing a crack pipe
* Possessing a bottle cap containing a trace amount of heroin (too minute to be weighed)
* Having traces of cocaine in clothes pockets that were invisible to the naked eye but detected in lab tests
* Having a single crack rock at home
* Possessing 32 grams of marijuana (worth about $380 in California) with intent to distribute
* Passing out several grams of LSD at a Grateful Dead show
* Acting as a go-between in the sale of $10 worth of marijuana to an undercover cop
Selling a single crack rock
* Verbally negotiating another man's sale of two small pieces of fake crack to an undercover cop
* Having a stash of over-the-counter decongestant pills that could be used to make methamphetamine
* Attempting to cash a stolen check
* Possessing stolen scrap metal (the offender was a junk dealer)—10 valves and one elbow pipe
* Possessing stolen wrenches
* Siphoning gasoline from a truck
* Stealing tools from a shed and a welding machine from a front yard
* Shoplifting three belts from a department store
* Shoplifting several digital cameras
* Shoplifting two jerseys from an athletic store
On average, for example a single Louisiana inmate serving life without parole costs the state about $500,000.
We could save a boatload of money if our judges were allowed to use discretion.
- Quote :
- The vast majority (83 percent) of life sentences examined by the ACLU were mandatory, meaning that the presiding judge had no choice but to sentence the defendant to a life behind bars.
People that repeatedly steal $20 worth of copper and do $2,000 worth of damage in the process have no sympathy from me. And scrap metal dealers that buy it off of them are only perpetuating this crime.
EDIT: After reading this again, something caught my eye. "Passing out several grams of LSD at a Grateful Dead concert." Several GRAMS! Damn! At .1 mg for an effective does for LSD, that is enough to dose 20,000 people!
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