To every Judge who has ever sentenced someone to life in prison, especially in Florida when the defendant was charged with first degree murder and the jury found him guilty of second degree murder.
“To serve a life without parole sentence is to observe your soul slowly ebb away, drip by drip, until the body becomes nothing but a living, functional casket of humanity. Death of the spirit occurs many, many years before the actual sentence is completed.” --Nathaniel Butler
Why don't we ever talk about the second-degree murder trap? It's less serious than first degree murder, and yet for most of the crimes/sentences, the punishment is the same. Charged with first degree murder with a firearm. Jury comes back second-degree murder. Sentence is the same. Doesn't make sense if you are from outside the criminal justice system.
Isn't it time we stopped running criminal justice based on a reaction to some 1970's movies hyper-sensationalizing some rare cases where a person was released from prison and re-offended? You can trace all our minimum mandatory laws to the 1970-80's fictional accounts of people getting released from prison and re-offending.
And while we are at it, how about when the Judge LIES to the jury and tells them that sentencing is exclusively her decision, when in a minimum mandatory prison sentence case the judge has NO discretion whatsoever. The sentence is wholly dependent on what the jury does.
Death penalty abolitionists and capital defense attorneys kept telling us that it's okay to abolish the death penalty or spare this defense the death penalty because life in prison is more agonizing and torturous than being executed. If they were telling the truth, then life in prison is working as it's supposed to work. But this notion of life in prison as some kind of hell on earth in which somebody becomes "a living, functional casket of humanity" is bullshit.
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Unaware of lifers' actual experience, an instinctively retributive but uninformed public often opposes the death penalty as "too good" for the worst of the worst, imagining life in prison as a living hell.
But day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment, inside prison a lifer's life in no way reflects the greater seriousness of his crime. In Lorton and most prisons across the United States, those who most deserve it suffer least. The toughest criminals who committed the worst crimes often have it best: Lifers move up to the favored supervisory positions in industry—earning the most money for the least work. They have the best hustles—the best-established contacts for drugs, weapons, etc. By contrast, the timid, short-term first offender, who deserves it least, often suffers the most.
Officers intentionally ignore the prisoners' crimes. "What a man is in here for is not our concern," explained Captain Frank Townshend, a well-respected, tough-but-fair Lorton officer. Inside the joint, prisoners further help cut that connection between the crime and punishment. With the exception of rape, which they scorn, and child molestation or crimes against the elderly, whatever a person did on the outside is his own business.
"My day?" explained David Keen, who raped little Ashley Reed, then strangled the eight-year-old child with a shoelace, dumping her, still living, into the Wolf River. "Do my arts and crafts, or go to the yard, play cards—spades and rummy. If we win, we win. Just going out to have fun," Keen continued. "Some people play Scrabble, pinochle, monopoly, handball, basketball. Some lift weights. I do push-ups and sit-ups in my house. We joke around, tease the officers; the officers tease us. It's pretty laid back, for the most part."
In the old days, fellow convicts routinely attacked child molesters like Keen. Today, afraid of losing their privileges, convicts mostly leave them alone. In the old days, prison staff too might have given Keen the cold shoulder. No longer. "When I come to work, every day I 'flip a switch' that says: 'These people are human beings; it doesn't matter what their crime is," explained Cameron Harvanik, Oklahoma State Penitentiary's good-natured Deputy Warden. Lee Mann, a warden's assistant, summed up best the laid-back lifestyle prison administration provides those serving LWOP: "We want to make the time as easy for them as we can because it makes it easy for us if it's easy for them."
"A better name for [LWOP] might be, 'death by incarceration,'" abolitionists have declared, using artful but misleading rhetoric to support the substitution of life for death. True, almost all aggravated murderers sentenced to LWOP will die in prison. But almost none will die because of prison. We all live, condemned to die somewhere. Some of us will die in old age in our sleep, or watching television, or taking a bath. Should we call these closing scenes "death by sleep," "death by television," "death by bathing?"
https://www.newsweek.com/life-without-parole-no-substitute-capital-punishment-opinion-1519552
There is a Bureau of Justice Statistics study from 2018 that indicates a prison recidivism rate of 68% after three years, 79% after 6 years, and 83% after nine years. Didnt click through to look at the numbers, but it claims to use a sample from thirty US states, i dont know of what size.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you insofar as we should not use movies to form opinions on recidivism. But we should use data. If the numbers above are near accurate, then no -- violent felons should not be released any earlier than they currently are.
I would be eager to see a blog post with better data or one critical of the BJS study, if it exists
In the old days (early 1980’s), the Court did not lie to the jury because rules required the judge to inform the jury what the minimum penalty was, and lawyers were able to weave into their argument that juror’s, as keepers of the community conscience, could consider the sentence when deciding their verdict. You couldn’t say it expressly, but good lawyers managed to convey that message to the jury. This empowered the jury to truly mete out justice. There were many verdicts of attempted trafficking because jurors could not stomach a 15 year min mand for a first-time, low-level dealer.
ReplyDeleteProsecutors got pissed and their lobby convinced the Supreme Court to change the rules. Now judges are required to lie to the jury about the extent of their discretion, and even more troubling, they don't even seem to mind doing it. Judges rightly resist every effort to limit their discretion, but I have never seen any organized effort by the judiciary to address this issue.
While your excellent post focused on murder cases, the issue arises in every case with a minimum mandatory sentence.
"the issue arises in every case with a minimum mandatory sentence"
ReplyDeleteThe issue arises in every case with a maximum sentence too. Laws are supposed to constrain both leniency and severity of potential punishments for whatever given crime. If judges' discretion is so sacred, then it should not be restricted in either direction. If a judge should be able to give out probation for murder, then a judge should also be able to give a life sentence for a misdemeanor.
(Sorry if this accidentally got submitted twice)
ReplyDeleteSo, tomorrow's a bit of an historical day. Tomorrow, for the first time in history, a jury gets to decide the fate of a school shooter. The jury has an extremely difficult job to do. I do not envy them and I am glad I'm not tasked with making such a decision.
It's been 4 years since this horrible massacre occurred and it is time for this to come to some sort of resolution. Although it is incredible that it only took 4 years for a case like this to be put to a jury especially when you consider a global pandemic erupted right in the middle of it.
I do not know and cannot predict how the jury will decide. I do know that no matter whether it's life or death, those 17 beautiful souls will not be returned to us. The pain will remain. But, at least now there will be some sort of finality to this chapter.
The day after the massacre occurred I changed my profile picture to honor the brave MSD victims. I vowed to keep it in place even after many others took theirs down as I did not want myself or any others to forget them or what happened.
Now that we're about to get a penalty verdict, I've wondered if I too will be changing my profile picture and be moving on. But I don't think any of the parents and family members of the victims from MSD, or Sandyhook, or Uvalde will be moving on any time soon. I also think it's important to remind everyone every day of what happened so that their memories, lives, and tragedies will not be forgotten.
I promise that I will not forget. Will you?
In reading the Newsweek article linked above, I was left wondering how accurate the portrayal was on a long term basis. Sure, day to day, it made it seem like life inside wasn't too bad. But what of the long term effects after years or decades in?
ReplyDeleteI think being in quarantine lockdowns showed how many people are affected by the inability to adjust to life on the inside - even if that inside was a very nice house with all the amenities that prisoners don't get.
Rumpole:
ReplyDeletePlease write this up on the front page of your blog. https://www.3dca.flcourts.org/content/download/850894/opinion/211522_DC05_10122022_102742_i.pdf
Life sentence because a homeless man couldn't come up with $92. Disgusting. A total miscarriage of justice. His original sentence, on which he was out on probation, was only 5 years. But when this homeless man (living in a tent) didn't sell his gas heater to come up with the $92 needed for an intake fee for a program that was part of his probation, he was sentenced to life in prison as an alleged repeat offender by Judge Fernandez and the 3rd DCA just affirmed.
In a federal court trial defense counsel can point out the penalties that the flip defendants faced if they went to trial. That enables the jury to know the possible penalty if the defendant on trial faces. And counsel can weave that fact into the closing argument.
ReplyDelete112 am you have no idea what you are talking about. If you work in the system you shouldn't. You think prison is easy because some New York law school professor says he visited a prison in Oklahoma and the officers and one inmate told him it was? Go spend a day in any Florida prison. Talk to anyone who has. It is a hellish existence. I'm sure you would say good, they deserve it, although thats not what the article you posted says, it says prison is a piece of cake, all you do is play cards and shoot the shit. A complete joke. Seriously talk to one person who has ever spent time in prison (inmate, officer, nurse, anyone) and get them to back that fantasy up. Today the Herald has a expose on how officers broke a guys neck and left him in a cell paralyzed for a week, unable to eat or move, depriving him of medical care until he died. Cakewalk.
ReplyDelete@12:55
ReplyDelete"You think prison is easy because some New York law school professor says he visited a prison in Oklahoma and the officers and one inmate told him it was?"
Well, apparently, we're supposed to think life in prison is some kind of living zombified death because Nathaniel Butler said so without citing any of his sources.
Blecker at least visited multiple prisons in 7 states.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2014/04/11/qa-death-penalty-proponent-robert-blecker/
Among them facilities in D.C., Tennessee, and Oklahoma. The Newsweek article was an abridged version of a more detailed law review submission.
https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1437&context=fac_articles_chapters
"Go spend a day in any Florida prison. Talk to anyone who has."
I have relatives who have been in Florida prison. They played cards, made prison wine, and joined racial prison gangs. They described it as tedious and boring, not some "hellish existence" that drove them to suicide. They spend their lives trying to somehow get money in their trust accounts to buy junk food and periodic new shoes from the canteen. Sad life, I'm sure, but not terribly different from the lives of "free" people slowly dying while they watch tv and eat junk food.
"Seriously talk to one person who has ever spent time in prison (inmate, officer, nurse, anyone) and get them to back that fantasy up."
You want to dismiss the opinion of Blecker and the officers and inmates and staff he cited, but then you think the personal testimony of this or that random Florida inmate, guard, or employee you want me to ask is so much more representative and credible?
Some inmates are kind enough to publish their experience of prison life.
This death row inmate asked "Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure, watching color TV in the A.C., reading, taking naps at will, eating three well balanced hot meals a day," and gloating "Kill me if you can suckers. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
https://wcti12.com/archive/north-carolina-death-row-inmate-writes-letter-about-life-of-leisure
One of the guys who raped and murdered a family in Connecticut received transgender surgery and hormone treatments in prison.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/us/steven-hayes-cheshire-transgender.html
That's in addition to the candy and junk food he enjoys.
https://www.courant.com/opinion/hc-op-blecker-life-sentence-fails-to-deliver-punis-20131118-story.html
Now the courts are saying all prisoners are entitled to getting gender surgery in prison at state expense.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/us/illinois-gender-affirming-surgery-prison/index.html
This inmate was able to barter the location of his victim's body for an Xbox in prison.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/10/23/man-gets-xbox-prison-leading-police-wifes-body/1737479002/
The prison later denied that this was some special privilege awarded for revealing the corpse's location and insisted that all inmates in the cellblock would be allowed to play video games or other entertainment devices.
https://www.wlns.com/news/mdoc-michigan-inmate-did-not-get-xbox-for-showing-police-to-wifes-body/
The statements of these individuals do not describe every inmates's experience, but nor do lamentations of the damned you claim to have heard. So making blanket statements that all lifers are suffering hell on earth is nonsense. If it was some fate worse than death, the majority of lifers should be offing themselves every day. It's not like the guards would go to any trouble to stop them.
@10:00
ReplyDelete"Sure, day to day, it made it seem like life inside wasn't too bad. But what of the long term effects after years or decades in?"
David Keen, the easygoing inmate featured in the Newsweek article, was not some newbie just starting his sentence. He committed his crimes in 1990. So he had already been in prison for decades before Blecker ever interviewed him.
Man, that Mendoza case is a bit fucked up. Quoting ‘when there is a will, there is a way’, and affirming life is not good. Either the guy could afford it or not….don’t think you send him for life if you think he could have tried to afford it. I do hope the supremes reverse on that point, it is an important burden issue and relates directly to the question of whether we send people to prison for being poor. Now, the state can argue they are poor and can’t afford payments because they aren’t trying hard enough. No bueno.
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2022/10/12/utter-proof-the-fbi-framed-trump-and-shielded-hunter/
ReplyDeleteAndrew finally wakes up. Bunch of criminal lawyers here on this blog who don't care about another man being set up.... unlike Ted Mastos ...
The Mendoza case is a stark warning to any and all of the clients that say that if they lose their trial/PVH, that they will win on appeal-with the 3rd-No you won't!
ReplyDeleteThe judge in the Cruz case should resign. Prosecution should join her. Nice win for the defense. What a shitbag client.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe Captain Reports:
Nikolas Cruz Verdict ……
I am sitting here listening to Judge Scherer reading each of the 17 counts and I am shocked. It appears that in less than seven hours of deliberation the jury has voted for LIFE in prison. The gallery in filled with crying parents who are shocked, outraged, and just beside themselves in this result. There are a few more verdict forms to be read but it is clear that at least one juror was convinced that the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factors and thus the LIFE SENTENCE.
The Judge is personally reading each verdict form and quite frankly she seems pissed. I’d be interested in hearing from others listening to see if they feel the same way about the judge.
CAP OUT …….
The judge was incompetent. Who cares what she thinks.
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ReplyDeleteLead State Attorney Michael Satz, who came out of retirement to try this case and who spent the last four years and eight months putting his life into this case looks beside himself. Ashen grey. Shocked. Head down in disbelief. He ends his career not the way he had expected.
Cap Out ……
Judge Fernandez’s evolution from defense attorney to automatic life sentence guy has been terrible for countless people
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ReplyDeleteCount 16. Two left to read. Each time the judge reads a verdict form the cameras focus on the family of that victim. Blank stares now. Just complete disbelief on their faces. They have nothing left and clearly feel like the jury has failed them. Each family members just shakes their head, no, back and forth, when hearing the verdict.
Cruz hasn’t really shown much emotion one way or the other.
Cap Out …….
ReplyDeleteThat’s it. 17 Counts. 17 LIFE SENTENCES. Boy is this verdict going to send shock waves around the country. If this case didn’t call out for a death sentence then why do we even have one in Florida. They will be the overriding question asked by many.
Clerk is now polling the jury. Each name of each juror being called out loud.
Judge now thanking the jury.
Cap Out …….
No one who believes that life is precious and is of and by god can ever be in favor of the death penalty. Let me put it more plainly, the death penalty is inconsistent with Christianity and the teachings of Jesus. The Catholic Church, for its part, affirmatively condemns the death penalty. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/committees/death_penalty_representation/publications/project_blog/pope-francis-encyclical-death-penalty-opposition/
ReplyDeleteThis may not be directly relevant to the law, and many here are not Christians; but to those of us who are Christians, to those who oppose abortion because of their Christian religious beliefs, or who hold other positions on the law based on their religious beliefs - stand and be counted as those who also oppose the death penalty.
We will have a hot capital punishment debate for sure on the newer post about the Cruz case, but let's not let the Mendoza case get buried.
ReplyDeleteThis miscarriage of justice is absurd.
A homeless man was sent to prison for life because he couldn't come up with $92. Insane.
David Ovalle, where are you?!?
https://www.3dca.flcourts.org/content/download/850894/opinion/211522_DC05_10122022_102742_i.pdf