Sentences
As a Criminal Justice professional, I have a strong interest in news about crime and sentencing. I’ve always felt that judges should be provided with wide discretion in sentencing. Granted that this often means that the public may not be happy when a judge chooses to be lenient - but it also means that judges get to drop the hammer on someone when circumstances warrant - rather than having to use calculus to come up with a sentencing structure. Specifically, the federal courts and Massachusetts’s Criminal Courts use a sentencing matrix - and this drives me absolutely crazy.
I have a professional interest in this in the areas of identity theft, felony and misdemeanor (petty theft in Massachusetts) theft, and related crimes that I deal with at work. But that’s not my point.
Indiana doesn’t use a sentencing matrix or any crap like that - and thus we get wonderful sentences like this one, reported in yesterday’s Indianapolis Star:
Anthony Keith Brown and two of the police officers he tried to kill stared at each other in a Marion County courtroom Friday.“You wasn’t laughing that night, was you?” Brown said, after the judge and most of the spectators had left the courtroom.
“I am now,” Officer Andy Lamle replied.
Officer Frank Miller II got in the last word as deputies ushered Brown away to begin serving a 126-year prison sentence:
“Enjoy your cage,” Miller said.
Brown led police on a car chase in December 2002, then unleashed a barrage of bullets at three Indianapolis Police Department officers.
Judge Sheila Carlisle of Marion Superior Court sentenced Brown on Friday for the attempted murders of Miller, Lamle and Officer Linda Jackson, who did not attend the sentencing.
Carlisle said a long prison term was the only way to protect society from the 26-year-old Brown.
“He clearly has a pattern of three things: guns, drugs and disregard for police authority,” Carlisle said in court. “If Mr. Brown is out in our community, or any other community, he’s going to get involved in criminal activity.”
A jury convicted Brown on May 12 of three counts of attempted murder, dealing cocaine and other crimes.
Brown repeatedly fired a rifle at the police officers during the Dec. 21, 2002, shootout.
“This defendant is an animal and deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life,” Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said after the hearing.
After leading police on a car chase, Brown fired at least 34 shots from a MAK 90 assault rifle at the officers near Sherman Drive and 32nd Street.
The Massachusetts Criminal Code takes up about three inches on my shelf in my office. The Indiana Code takes up about 1/2 of an inch.
Which system is more effective? There’s no question.
August 28th, 2004 at 1:22 pm
In Massachusetts district court, the DA is better off with most judges with offenses that have mandatory sentencing requirements because the bias seems to be to give very light sentences. Last week I saw a judge CWOF a posession to distribute Class A case where the defendant had a bad record and was caught with 20 bags of heroin! Her honor seemed to buy the argument that the mandatory loss of driver’s license would be too much of an inconvenience for the defendant. Of course, one wouldn’t want the state to inconvenience someone who has pled guilty to being a heroin dealer…
November 26th, 2004 at 10:26 am
My grandson was brutally mudered last December by two of his so called friends. they shot him in the head and put him in the backseat of his own car and caught him on fire while, by their own admission, they could still hear him gurgling. The deputy prosecuter on the case is trying to tell us that they only face 45 to 85 years. Can you explain this to me? I have spent hours on the internet trying to figure it out. I understand that in Indiana it’s hard to get a jury to find someone guilty if they think the defendant may get the death penalty. Why not life without parole? There are definitely aggravating factors involved. The only thing I can figure is that my grandson was involved in things he shouldn’t have been and maybe they think he got what he deserved. I know for a fact that he was trying to get uninvolved with these boys. He has never had a felony on his record and the other two had numerous ones. One was even under house arrest when the crime occured and had cut off his ankle bracelet. It wouldn’t matter, though, if my grandson had an arm’s length of convictions, nobody has the right to commit such a heinous crime against another human being and be released from prison at a young enough age to start a life and have the opprtunity to start a family. Thank you for allowing me to blow off some steam. by the way, these boys are both 21, and their trial starts Feb. 7. They killed Douger Dec. 1 of 2003. Linda Montgomery
November 26th, 2004 at 10:26 am
My grandson was brutally mudered last December by two of his so called friends. they shot him in the head and put him in the backseat of his own car and caught him on fire while, by their own admission, they could still hear him gurgling. The deputy prosecuter on the case is trying to tell us that they only face 45 to 85 years. Can you explain this to me? I have spent hours on the internet trying to figure it out. I understand that in Indiana it’s hard to get a jury to find someone guilty if they think the defendant may get the death penalty. Why not life without parole? There are definitely aggravating factors involved. The only thing I can figure is that my grandson was involved in things he shouldn’t have been and maybe they think he got what he deserved. I know for a fact that he was trying to get uninvolved with these boys. He has never had a felony on his record and the other two had numerous ones. One was even under house arrest when the crime occured and had cut off his ankle bracelet. It wouldn’t matter, though, if my grandson had an arm’s length of convictions, nobody has the right to commit such a heinous crime against another human being and be released from prison at a young enough age to start a life and have the opprtunity to start a family. Thank you for allowing me to blow off some steam. by the way, these boys are both 21, and their trial starts Feb. 7. They killed Douger Dec. 1 of 2003. Linda Montgomery