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– Towards Liberty –
A COMMENTARY ON CURRENT EVENTS
– by Jarret Wollstein –
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ONE SMALL VICTORY FOR LIBERTY:
Outrageous Sentencing Guidelines
No Longer Mandatory
– 02-14-05 –
Life in prison for stealing a spare tire . . . for possession of a
small knife . . . for filing a false DMV application . . . or for shoplifting a package of T-shirts.
These are a few examples of sentences meted out under California's
outrageous "3-Strikes-and-You're-Out" law.
Thanks to California's "Three-Strikes" law and similar state and
federal "mandatory minimum" laws, tens of thousands of people throughout the U.S. are being sentenced
to decades or even life in prison, for minor violations of the law – often with no possibility of
parole. For instance, the laws of at least 15 states mandate life in prison for some non-violent
marijuana offenses. In Montana, you can even be imprisoned for life for possessing a single marijuana
plant.
With such draconian mandatory sentences for minor crimes, it's no
wonder that the U.S. now has a higher incarceration rate than Iran, Russia or Communist China.
For the record, over two million Americans are now in federal and
state prisons, and 25% of all black males between 15 and 25 are now under control of the U.S. criminal
justice system – in prison, awaiting trial, or are on parole.
One Small Victory For Liberty
In one small victory for liberty, in January 2005, the U.S. Supreme
Court struck down part of the 1987 Sentencing Reform Act that made draconian federal sentencing
guidelines mandatory throughout the U.S. (in federal cases).
Although that decision won't affect California's Three-Strikes law,
and similar state laws, it will give a measure of relief to federal defendants who come before judges
who rely upon common sense rather than government edicts.
Like California's Three Strikes law, federal Sentencing Guidelines
mandate draconian sentences – up to life in prison – for minor offenses. The Sentencing
Guidelines also require federal judges to increase sentences for convicted defendants regarding offenses
for which they were acquitted and for which there is only hearsay evidence – an outrageous
flouting of all standards of justice and decency.
The end result of the federal Sentencing Guidelines is that thousands
of people who committed only minor offenses are being sentenced to rot in prison for decades – or
the rest of their lives, often on the word of drug dealers, or other thugs; at a cost of up to $40,000
per prisoner, per year. (Your tax dollars at work.)
Here are a few examples of the draconian prison sentences mandated by
the federal Sentencing Guidelines:
- Thirty-eight-year-old Dale Yirkovsky was helping remodel the home in which he was staying, when
he found a single .22-caliber round and put it in a small box in his room. When police searched his
room after an ex-girlfriend complained that Yirkovsky still had some of her property, they found the
single bullet.
Because Yirkovsky had previously been convicted of a felony, he was
convicted in federal court of being a "felon in possession of ammunition," and was sentenced to
15-years in prison for that single bullet.
The appellate court agreed that the prison term was "an extreme penalty
under the facts," but upheld it, saying "our hands are tied in this matter by the mandatory minimum
sentence which Congress established."
- Twenty-three-year-old Clarence Aaron was a successful college athlete majoring in marketing.
The son of a very poor family, he gave in to temptation and accepted $1,500 for introducing two groups
of drug dealers to each other.
Months later, he was literally pulled out of class by FBI agents and
charged with conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. In a plea bargain to get a reduced sentence, the
drug dealers said that Aaron was a drug "mastermind," responsible for distributing a large quantity of
cocaine.
Despite the fact that no drugs were produced at trial, and no evidence
was given connecting Aaron in any way to drug dealing – except the testimony of the drug dealers
(who benefited by getting lower sentences) – Aaron was sentenced to life in prison without
parole, as required by the federal sentencing guidelines.
(Source: Erik Luna, "Misguided Guidelines: A critique of federal sentencing," Cato Policy Analysis
#458, 11-1-02, pp. 18-19.)
What The New Rules Do And
Do Not Accomplish
The recent Supreme Court decision on Sentencing Guidelines does not
eliminate the Guidelines, but it does make them optional rather than mandatory. Judges are still
required to consider the Guidelines before sentencing.
Unfortunately, most judges are a timid lot, scared to death of
offending Big Brother in Washington. So most judges can be expected to still follow the Guidelines.
As Barry Scheck – president of the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers and co-founder of the Innocence Project – explains:
"What that probably has done has not changed things for the vast
majority of defendants all that much, but it does give judges a lot more flexibility, something that
they really wanted, and probably deserved."
So the Supreme Court decision on sentencing guidelines is one small
victory for freedom, but it is far short of what really needs to be done to restore justice to our
system:
Repealing 90% of new criminal laws passed in the last 30 years ...
eliminating all mandatory minimum laws (both federal and state) ... ending the War on Drugs (along with
the wars on guns, doctors, and children who draw "violent pictures") . . . and releasing millions of
innocent Americans held on trumped-up charges or put away based on the paid testimony of drug dealers
and criminals.
Only in this way can we begin to restore justice to America and once
again lower our incarceration rate below that of Communist China.
To view back issues of Jarret Wollstein's Towards Liberty, Click here.
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