Mandatory Minimum Sentences
So with the "shocking" news about the discovery of JonBenet's murderer already disproven, what has it taught us? John Mark Karr will forever be remembered as the man who wished that he had killed JonBenet, as a pedophile who was only capable of murdering that little girl in his own mind. But to me the main reason why this is such an interesting case is not that some little white girl was killed (cause who really cares abuot a 6-year old other than her family?) but because the media made THIS their main story before any facts were even in. So we had all this coverage of some random pedophile's business class travel from Thailand to LA simply because CNN, MSNBC, Fox and the others were too lazy to do any actual reporting and REPORT NEWS. Even if the DNA evidence had come out as a 100% match for John Mark Karr, it wouldn't have changed anything, other than the fact that we IMPORTED A PEDOPHILE FROM THAILAND!!! Why extradite him when he was to face some kind of justice in Thailand for his pedophile ways? We have enough perverts and murderers here in the US, we don't need to import them once they've left our nation. Isn't homeland security about keeping undesirables outside of our borders? In the past week or so we've imported the most powerful drug lord in Northern Mexico (Arellano-Felix) and the man suspected in one of the most publicized murder cases ever, yet we can't even police our own cities.
I write about our laws pretty frequently, but today I decided to use Jimmy Carter's words to express my opinion: “Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use.” -President Jimmy Carter: Message to Congress, August 2, 1977. In a word, justice, is what law should be about. Someone smoking weed is not causing harm, nor is someone selling it, so where's the justice in ruining someone's life simply because they choose weed over alcohol? How is August Busch III not considered a drug dealer when he's peddling alcohol to every drunk-driving redneck and overweight American out there? His company has directly contributed to the deaths of thousands, but the Busch family is still considered royalty in St Louis. Ditto for Phillip Morris, cigarettes kill more people than basically anything other than heart disease (thank you McDonalds, Busch and TV) in this country, yet we don't see our jail overcrowding with men who own smoke shops. When you have a criminal justice system that makes it more of a crime to sell a product that you manufactured from a seedling (like marijuana, hashish and kief) to a marketable product than breaking into someone's home and steal their baseball card collection, there's something wrong.
If you ever listened to the Fugees or Wyclef Jean's work from the mid-90s, you've heard a man named John Forte (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fort%C3%A9) in the background. What most of you don't know is that he's currently serving 14 years at Fort Dix for possession of 31 pounds of liquid cocaine with intent to distribute. The messed up part of this case is that Forte wasn't even the one who was profitting from this deal, he was just the delivery man and had thought he was delivering cash to facilitate a deal for his friend. So this incredibly talented man was put into jail for his first transgression from the law (ever, he'd never had as much of a misdemeanor) for a minimum of 14 years because of a pointless law that takes the judgement away from the judge and states that certain drug crimes should have mandatory minimums. Dealing ecstasy can put you in jail for 30-life, messed up for a drug that high schoolers and college students will risk death just to have that night-long party that ecstasy provides. When there is no mandatory minimum, there can be discretion in the case. Some drug dealers belong in jail, like the ones who kill rivals and steal to move up in the business, but most dealers are just people trying to support themselves, or in the case of most weed dealers, to support their habit. A perfect example of why a minimum sentence is rediculous: In 1995, Joann Zedler called police to her home on a domestic violence call about her husband, who then fled. As police searched for him, they found a crop of marijuana growing on the property, along with several guns. Joann was arrested and had to forfeit the family's property to the government. For residing in a place with drugs, she received a mandatory sentence of 10 years. When her husband was caught, he too was arrested and sentenced to 10 years. This is what the judge said when sentencing Joann, who had no prior offenses: "When I read the pre-sentence report, I thought to myself this just doesn’t seem right. On the other hand, it’s the law. There’s absolutely no question in my mind that these are severe mandatory minimums. Ten years is a long time."
If we repealed those pointless laws requiring drug offenders to be locked away longer than murderers, child molesters (10 years for molesting a child, 14 years for possessing a suitcase with cocaine that many people REALLY WANT) and thieves, we'd see our criminal justice system with so much extra space in our prisons and so much more time that they'd actually be able to put CRIMINALS away instead of entrepeneurs. If you're from the ghetto and you can only find a job working 40 hours a week for less money than you'd need to live comfortably, shouldn't you do what it takes to earn more? After all, if that man makes $350 a week working and an additional $500 selling drugs, he's able to contribute $2000 more a month to the economy. Just because money is earned on the black market doesn't mean it wont be spent in the mainstream market. Look at all of the companies that sprang up in the gangta-rap era of the last decade, you think those 24" rims and in-dash DVD players were being sold to stock brokers? They were popularized by ghetto-ass gangsta rappers like Ludacris who has come straight out and said that he dealt cocaine. I definitely don't agree with laws regulating morality and consumption; why do we let someone else tell us what we can and can't put in our body? If Bush tried to implement a law tomorrow that made Chocolate (after all, eating too much can kill you) illegal there would be riots, so why do we let them tell us we can't risk death by taking drugs?
So bringing this back to the beginning, why do we let our government set laws that are more harmful than the "crime" itself? While John Forte, a brilliant, talented and kind (met him at homecoming my senior year, before he was in jail) graduate of Phillips Exeter and NYU, is in jail for the next dozen+ years, an admitted pedophile is flown from Thailand on the taxpayer's dollar in business class. So Karr didn't kill JonBenet, big surprise, but where does that leave us? Well, he may go to jail for his child porn case in Petaluma, but it wont be for 14+ years, and this is a man who thought he'd be capable of raping and killing a 6 year old girl! If we are to have jails and a criminal justice system, shouldn't there be justice? Shouldn't we let those 17 year old small-time coke dealers have another chance before they're turned into criminals by 14 years in our ineffective prisons? Shouldn't we just lock up molesters and counsel them until there's absolutely no signs of their dirty desires? Shouldn't we have the punishment fit the crime? I seem to recall a document our nation was founded on called the bill of rights and I think there was something in there about not being subjected to cruel punishment for a lesser crime. How is 14 years of being raped and beaten and subjected to sadistic guards not cruel punishment for delivering a suitcase filled with drugs or for supporting your young son by selling cocaine? Give me an explanation, I dare you.
I write about our laws pretty frequently, but today I decided to use Jimmy Carter's words to express my opinion: “Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use.” -President Jimmy Carter: Message to Congress, August 2, 1977. In a word, justice, is what law should be about. Someone smoking weed is not causing harm, nor is someone selling it, so where's the justice in ruining someone's life simply because they choose weed over alcohol? How is August Busch III not considered a drug dealer when he's peddling alcohol to every drunk-driving redneck and overweight American out there? His company has directly contributed to the deaths of thousands, but the Busch family is still considered royalty in St Louis. Ditto for Phillip Morris, cigarettes kill more people than basically anything other than heart disease (thank you McDonalds, Busch and TV) in this country, yet we don't see our jail overcrowding with men who own smoke shops. When you have a criminal justice system that makes it more of a crime to sell a product that you manufactured from a seedling (like marijuana, hashish and kief) to a marketable product than breaking into someone's home and steal their baseball card collection, there's something wrong.
If you ever listened to the Fugees or Wyclef Jean's work from the mid-90s, you've heard a man named John Forte (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fort%C3%A9) in the background. What most of you don't know is that he's currently serving 14 years at Fort Dix for possession of 31 pounds of liquid cocaine with intent to distribute. The messed up part of this case is that Forte wasn't even the one who was profitting from this deal, he was just the delivery man and had thought he was delivering cash to facilitate a deal for his friend. So this incredibly talented man was put into jail for his first transgression from the law (ever, he'd never had as much of a misdemeanor) for a minimum of 14 years because of a pointless law that takes the judgement away from the judge and states that certain drug crimes should have mandatory minimums. Dealing ecstasy can put you in jail for 30-life, messed up for a drug that high schoolers and college students will risk death just to have that night-long party that ecstasy provides. When there is no mandatory minimum, there can be discretion in the case. Some drug dealers belong in jail, like the ones who kill rivals and steal to move up in the business, but most dealers are just people trying to support themselves, or in the case of most weed dealers, to support their habit. A perfect example of why a minimum sentence is rediculous: In 1995, Joann Zedler called police to her home on a domestic violence call about her husband, who then fled. As police searched for him, they found a crop of marijuana growing on the property, along with several guns. Joann was arrested and had to forfeit the family's property to the government. For residing in a place with drugs, she received a mandatory sentence of 10 years. When her husband was caught, he too was arrested and sentenced to 10 years. This is what the judge said when sentencing Joann, who had no prior offenses: "When I read the pre-sentence report, I thought to myself this just doesn’t seem right. On the other hand, it’s the law. There’s absolutely no question in my mind that these are severe mandatory minimums. Ten years is a long time."
If we repealed those pointless laws requiring drug offenders to be locked away longer than murderers, child molesters (10 years for molesting a child, 14 years for possessing a suitcase with cocaine that many people REALLY WANT) and thieves, we'd see our criminal justice system with so much extra space in our prisons and so much more time that they'd actually be able to put CRIMINALS away instead of entrepeneurs. If you're from the ghetto and you can only find a job working 40 hours a week for less money than you'd need to live comfortably, shouldn't you do what it takes to earn more? After all, if that man makes $350 a week working and an additional $500 selling drugs, he's able to contribute $2000 more a month to the economy. Just because money is earned on the black market doesn't mean it wont be spent in the mainstream market. Look at all of the companies that sprang up in the gangta-rap era of the last decade, you think those 24" rims and in-dash DVD players were being sold to stock brokers? They were popularized by ghetto-ass gangsta rappers like Ludacris who has come straight out and said that he dealt cocaine. I definitely don't agree with laws regulating morality and consumption; why do we let someone else tell us what we can and can't put in our body? If Bush tried to implement a law tomorrow that made Chocolate (after all, eating too much can kill you) illegal there would be riots, so why do we let them tell us we can't risk death by taking drugs?
So bringing this back to the beginning, why do we let our government set laws that are more harmful than the "crime" itself? While John Forte, a brilliant, talented and kind (met him at homecoming my senior year, before he was in jail) graduate of Phillips Exeter and NYU, is in jail for the next dozen+ years, an admitted pedophile is flown from Thailand on the taxpayer's dollar in business class. So Karr didn't kill JonBenet, big surprise, but where does that leave us? Well, he may go to jail for his child porn case in Petaluma, but it wont be for 14+ years, and this is a man who thought he'd be capable of raping and killing a 6 year old girl! If we are to have jails and a criminal justice system, shouldn't there be justice? Shouldn't we let those 17 year old small-time coke dealers have another chance before they're turned into criminals by 14 years in our ineffective prisons? Shouldn't we just lock up molesters and counsel them until there's absolutely no signs of their dirty desires? Shouldn't we have the punishment fit the crime? I seem to recall a document our nation was founded on called the bill of rights and I think there was something in there about not being subjected to cruel punishment for a lesser crime. How is 14 years of being raped and beaten and subjected to sadistic guards not cruel punishment for delivering a suitcase filled with drugs or for supporting your young son by selling cocaine? Give me an explanation, I dare you.
posted by Dan Pasternack at 4:39 PM
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