
How a first crack cocaine offense led to a life sentence - fraXis
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/07/15/from-a-first-arrest-to-a-life-sentence/
======
burnte
This is the type of prosecutorial insanity that has helped create the largest
prison system in the world. Prosecutors routinely stack up charges so that
they have a massive amount of leverage in plea bargaining to get exactly what
they want from the start with no compromise.

Accidentally bounce a check? That's a bad check charge, another charge for
theft by unlawful taking (is there theft by LAWFUL taking?), another charge
for theft by deception (is there theft by honesty?), theft of services if it
was for a service or possibly retail theft if it was for goods at a store. All
because your check at the local grocery store didn't clear because the deposit
you made took an extra day to process. Now you're on the hook for the $200,
and $1000+ in legal costs fines, etc. Because the prosecutor doesn't want to
waste time in a trial, he offers you to plead down to just two of those
charges, which by all rights all you should really have to face is the bad
check charge to start with. Now you understand why 1 in 32 people is dealing
with prison, jail, or probation in America.

Source:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=Lf0TCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA48&ots=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=Lf0TCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA48&ots=SAJ98Z_WX-&dq=6.7%20Million%20in%20prison%2C%20on%20parole%20or%20probation&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q&f=false)

~~~
spikels
It is mostly the politicians who write these stupid laws not the prosecutors
and judges who generally follow the intent of the law. The media deserve a lot
of the blame for overhyping issues then demanding solutions when there are no
good ones. Of course voters deserve blame for falling for the media's and
politician's bullshit views on what our agenda and solutions should be.

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ufmace
Much as I am generally against the War On Some Drugs and particularly the
crazy sentences meted out for nonviolent offenders, I'm feeling a bit of
devil's advocate on this one.

The title tries to paint her as a ordinary user, but it sounds like she was
actually a mid-level dealer, or at least some kind of participant in a drug
ring. And who carried a gun while making deals. Who entered the business
hoping to make even more money than the hair salon, burger joint, and
restaurant she started with unknown degrees of success, according to the
article. It also sounds like she managed to get hit with a particularly bad
set of federal sentence enhancements - maybe she got into this without the
right kind of help telling her what to do to minimize sentences given arrest
in the current legal climate.

I tend to feel the most sympathy for the end-users who get huge sentences for
simple possession of modest, personal-use amounts of drugs, particularly when
they're addicted. It's much harder to feel sympathy for those who enter a
highly illegal market looking to make big money. Yeah, prohibition is kinda
bullshit, but as long as we're stuck with it, remember that the reason the
prohibited market is so profitable is that you risk doing hard time if you get
caught, and enforcement is aggressive and vigorous. You wanna make that money,
I don't hate you for it, but don't ask me to cry for you when you get busted.

~~~
dalke
You are not acting as a devil's advocate but Pontius Pilate, willing to wash
your hands and let the system be.

Some of the jurors who convicted her were "dismayed":

> “Life in prison? My God, that is too harsh,” said James J. Siwinski, a
> retired worker for a glass company. “That is too severe. There’s people
> killing people and getting less time than that. She wasn’t an angel. But
> enough is enough already.”

which means you have less sympathy than some of those who know the full facts
of the case. Moreover,

> "The Justice Department announced last month that one of Colombia’s most
> notorious drug traffickers and a senior paramilitary leader will serve about
> 15 years in prison for leading an international drug trafficking conspiracy
> that imported more than 100,000 kilograms of cocaine into the United
> States."

No matter how little you may cry over her imprisonment, no one else is crying
over that either, but rather the injustice of the length. Why does a mid-level
dealer get such drastically higher punishment than a high-level dealer? Is it
because the international drug trafficker could afford "the right kind of
help"?

If so, do you shed no tears over a justice system where the rich can easily
buy freedom or leniency?

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b6
> "In light of the law and the guidelines and what the court heard during the
> trial, I know Judge Solis followed the law. He's a very fair man."

This is where the rubber meets the road. We all need to think about what type
of world we want to help build.

Maybe someday you will wield a small amount of power in some situation, and it
will be very clear what you are expected to do, and you will have the burden,
opportunity, privilege, honor, to refuse to be a part of it. That you will not
put bricks in place to make the world worse, that you will defy expectations
and put bricks where they actually belong.

~~~
chasing
If I understand your comment, you're saying Judge Solis had "a small amount of
power" with which he could have helped this woman.

But the point of the article, it seems, is that he had no power: Mandatory
minimums completely tied his hands and gave him no options.

So while this is a travesty, I'm not sure the blame lays with Judge Solis.

~~~
dsfnsdjfs
yep, just followin' orders captain', no one to blame, truly it is a travesty,
but what is there to do?

Yep, wonder if the I can get in a 9 hole before sundown.

~~~
chasing
You're assuming a whole lot of facts not in evidence, prosecutor.

For one thing: I'm not sure what _would_ happen to a judge if she or he were
to simply ignore the law when it came to sentencing. (Maybe someone here
does.) My assumption is that they would be penalized somehow and that, in the
end, the legal sentence would be applied, anyway.

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vonklaus
No matter how much of an outlier each one of these cases is, this is fucking
tragic. Life in prison was harsh for the Ulbricht case, she had a single
count.

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jqm
This isn't justice, isn't efficient, hasn't been effective and isn't
economical either. It's good to see a small ray of sense being brought to bear
on the matter. There is still a long way to go however.

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discardorama
FTA: "Inside Carswell’s visiting room one recent afternoon, Jones opened the
tattered blue _Bible_ she brought in with her 16 years ago and turned to her
daughter, Clenesha Garland. She gently pushed a strand of hair off her
daughter’s forehead. They read the _Bible_ together when Garland visits every
couple of weeks."

Sometimes I wonder whether these sentencing laws are influenced by religion.

~~~
dalke
"Religion" is such a broad term. Both those for and against slavery in the US
justified their beliefs from the same religious text.

"Influence" is another nebulous term. Some religious faiths in the US
considered those with dark skin to have been marked and cursed by God to a
life of subjugation. This faith has certainly historically lead to racially
biased laws and racially biased justice system. (Eg, slavery in the US, but
also institutionalized racism like redlining carried out by the Federal
Housing Administration.)

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which raised the penalties on the crack to be
much 100x higher than that of non-crack cocaine, strongly disproportionally
affected black Americans. Part of the reasoning behind the Act was to help the
black communities ravaged by drug use, but a larger part of it was the
ratcheting up of the War on Drugs. This War has its roots in racist viewpoints
of the early 1900s. Anslinger, one of the early high officials in that "war"
is often quoted as saying:

> “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes,
> Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and
> swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek
> sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others … the primary
> reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races… Marijuana
> is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and
> death … Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men. ”Marihuana
> leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing … You smoke a joint and you’re
> likely to kill your brother … Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in
> the history of mankind.”

With "Their Satanic music" it's not hard to infer that there is a religious
influence, though it's only one of many influences in that quote.

In short, a question of "whether these sentencing laws are influenced by
religion" can be easily be answered "yes".

Then again, I could also find people who use religion to argue for reducing
the severity of these laws.

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vtsrh
And removed from the first page down to 978th position.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/news?p=33](https://news.ycombinator.com/news?p=33)

Don't tell me this was caused by user flags, because it clearly wasn't.

Edit: It is completely gone now.

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dang
> Don't tell me this was caused by user flags, because it clearly wasn't.

It was caused entirely by user flags. Why would you say it wasn't?

Moderators didn't penalize the post. We did unkill it so discussion could
continue.

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colechristensen
Not in any way "Hacker News"

~~~
enraged_camel
You've been here for 1407 days and still haven't learned. Tsk tsk...

