There is a recent case in Florida.
A 100 pound, 19 year old guy was convicted of attempted murder.
The typical sentence for that is 10 years (so the teenager could get a second chance at life at age 29)
In this case, the victim was an off-duty, undercover detective.
The typical sentence for attempted murder of an officer is 15 years (so the teenager could get a second chance at life at age 34).
But, the judge had a power surge.. and sentenced the 19 year old to life in prison. Which will probably be a 60 year sentence ending with the guy's death.
We don't execute people for jay-walking.. nor do we sentence people to life in prison for attempted murder. One danger of sentencing someone to life in prison for attempted murder is that it will give criminals the idea that if they are going to shoot someone.. don't leave them alive.. make sure they are dead if you shoot them. Dead men tell no tales, etc.
My point is.. the punishment needs to fit the crime. In California, an illegal immigrant who was deported 5 times murdered a woman… and he was found not guilty by the liberal court. That guy gets to walk and he killed a woman. Yet this teenager is being sentenced to life for attempted murder.
Apparently what happened was the teenager was driving in his own car. The off-duty officer was taking his kid to school in his unmarked, personal car (officers are not allowed to use their service cars for personal use such as bringing their kids to school). The off-duty officer claims the teen was driving recklessly, and tried to apprehend him. Put yourself in that 100 pound teens place. Some stranger in a civilian car is attempting to get you to stop your car / run you off the road.. what do you do? He wound up shooting the cop non-fatally. The cop also fired his gun. (Gee, I wonder who shot first? Uh huh). The teen then fled, and wound up being shot by other cops. In other words.. this shooting was instigated by an overzealous, off duty cop.
This reminds me of another incident that occurred about a mile from me over a decade ago. A man was at a hardware store (Home Depot) and stole something worth $50. An off duty cop in plain clothes spotted him and followed him into the parking lot. The man got into his car and started driving away. The plain clothes off duty cop pulled out his gun and tried to stop the man from fleeing the scene. This resulted in the plain clothes cop blowing the man's head off - all over a $50 theft.
This strikes a nerve with me.. because one time, I spotted a cop parked in the driveway of my neighbor who was out of town at about midnight. I had another neighbor who was putting up political signs of one candidate up and down the street .. while removing signs from the opposing candidate. Since the cop was there.. I thought I would take the opportunity to go inform this cop of what was going on in the neighborhood. It occurred to me that he might be there because of that issue. I approached the cops car.. and he didn't see me approaching. I got right up to his car, and he was eating a bag of potato chips while watching porn on his laptop.. and touching himself. He was not happy that I was standing there.. and he started interrogating me. He wasn't listening to anything I said.. and he called for backup. Two other cruisers pulled up.. and they started interrogating me also.. and again none of them listening to what I was trying to tell them. Then the first cop said he was going to get the "bracelets" and went into his car to get his handcuffs. I said "OK.. that's enough!" and started walking away. The other 2 officers started walking after me.. and I wasn't about to be arrested for total bullshit.. so I ran off. They may very well have shot me in the head as I fled.. but the first cop told them to let me go.
What do YOU think about judges who let hard-core killers walk.. while other judges put foolish teenagers away for life? Neither judge followed the laws on the books. Perhaps the judges should be punished for some sort of "judicial malpractice"?
