Watching today's segments were quite informative and interesting.

First, there was the story of the man who was accused of beating his wife, the church secretary, in the head with a hammer, nearly killing her. His downfall was the fact that he had been having an affair and while his wife was near death in the hospital, he moved his lover and her child into his marital home.

A jury convicted him of 2nd degree attempted murder. The victim could not identify her attacker, most likely due to the temporary amnesia that happens to most victims of violent head trauma. Sentencing guidelines called for a possible sentence of 5 years in prison.

Unfortunately, with no real evidence against him (other than the torrid affair) the judge sentence the philanderer to Life in Prison Without the Possiblity of Parole Plus 30 Years.

Another segment seemed to be quite at odds with the previous one. A man had embezzled $197,000 from his employer, committed FEDERAL bank fraud, committed other, smaller embezzlements, ran off with his wife, abandoning his 4 year old stepdaughter. There was no doubt whatsoever that he was guilty. He had served jail time before, for previous crimes and was nothing more than a career criminal.

After being convicted of Federal Bank Fraud, he was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

So folks, it would appear that in the USA, if you want to spend a long time in prison, don't fool around on your wife! It's much safer to take your chances screwing over the Feds than screwing over your wife.

How lopsided and bizarre is our justice system?

Damn. The Thomas Drake story resurfaced again. I really need to start recording Spike but it's a headache trying to keep up with the ever changing time slot.

Yeah, the thing that got me about the story of the hammer attack on the church secretary was that the wife was totally fine with him serving the rest of his life in prison even though she didn't seem at all sure that he was responsible. She was just pissed that he had an affair.

The guy was definitely major-league stupid for moving the girlfriend into the house when she was in the hospital, but there really did not seem to be any evidence against him. Wasn't there also a witness who also saw the guy the husband described seeing when he came to see her at work? Very strange.

Don't look for any sense at all in how much time people get for various crimes. I work in the criminal justice system and it rarely makes sense to me.

IIRC, in Drake's hammer attack case, there were three viable suspects. The husband, a man sitting in his car outside the church, and a former mental patient living nearby whose finger print was found on the door of the church, and he could not explain why it was there.

Once the cops found out about the affair, they stopped pursuing all other leads. That's a quote from UM.

You all seen Drake's most recent mugshot? Maybe I'm reading too much into it but he just has this goofy smirk of an expression...

http://www.dc.state.fl.us/AppCommon/

For Which Crime Will You Do The Most Time?


Dang... I mistook your post title.

I was going to say: "I think the crime for which you will do the most time is posting links to videos on ou-Yay ube-Tay."

:lol:

Since state laws can very widely on all types of punishments, I am not surprised.

Where you commit a crime,who you committ a crime to and what type of person you are, tend to be the biggest prevaling factors in how much time you do in America.


Another thing you have to keep in mind, that most prosecutorslawyers choose to plea bargain instead of taking a case to court. These deals tend to be for a lot less time than you would get in a court conviction.

Also how merciful your judge is in the sentencing phase doesn;t hurt either.

As for the Federal side of things, the Feds tend to enforce their laws depending on whether it's in their best interest to enforce the laws (the Al Capone scenario)

Dang... I mistook your post title.

I was going to say: "I think the crime for which you will do the most time is posting links to videos on ou-Yay ube-Tay."

:lol:

LOL Perfect timing for the usage of ig-Pay atin-Lay.

I was let off with a warning for my first offense of making a reference (without a link). I might get the chair if I keep up with the euphemisms, tho.

But who wants to go there anyway, since they closed down all the good user accounts. If the UM people would just put all the eppies on DVD we wouldn't be tempted by the black market. :nonono: