My Problem with the Justice System
Problem: I believe the "period" of criminal activity needs to more thoroughly considered when sentencing, or even be the main determinant of the sentence. By the "period" of criminal activity, I'm refering to the length of time over which the crime/crimes are commited.
For example:
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Lets say a thief burgles 300 homes over a period of 5 years. I believe five years is a long time to reflect on what you are doing and have done, and thus this sort of crime is not excusable in any way. The number of homes burgled proves that the thief is a drain on society, a parasite. He/she has not at any time considered the inconvenience of his/her actions. My sentence: Death penalty.
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Say a wife cheats on her husband, they get divorced, and three weeks later the husband shoots her dead. This crime has been committed over a short period of time, one can imagine why the husband would do this, and though it is murder, it is not a repetitive crime. My sentence: 25 years, 15 without the option of parole.
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A small-time financier runs a Ponzi scheme over 10 years, costing investors $200m of their retirement savings. My sentence: Death penalty.
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A thief at the video store gets confronted by the manager who sees that he is stealing. The thief pulls out a gun and shoots the manager dead, before making a getaway. Clearly this crime was commited over a short period of time and was an irrational, one off decision. The criminal had no time to reflect on his actions before commiting them. Sentence: 20 years without parole.
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The thief from the previous question gets away with his crime. However, six months later he is caught robbing a convenience store, this time hitting the attendent with a baseball bat and injuring him. He get's caught, and the police manage to solve both crimes at once (this and the video store murder). It becomes obvious the criminal hasn't changed after adequate time to reflect on what he had previously done, and he can no longert use one moment of irrational thinking as a excuse. My combined sentence: 250 years without parole in maximum security prison, first 10 years in solitary confinement.
You get my point. I don't expect many of you to agree, but it's my view nonetheless. I can understand people make irrational decisions and commit horrible crimes - making irrational decisions without properly considering the consequences is part of human nature. What I can't understand is multiple crimes or crimes commited over a long period of time. Punishments should be given accordingly.
Well, if you take a life (murder) it should be an automatic death penalty. However, for other crimes as in your 1st example (300 home invasions), I think it should be a life sentence of forced worked that benefits society.
Also, we would have to freeze all of his accounts and assets and pay back the robbed families.
The guy in the video store could have run through scenarios beforehand, and decided that in the event of discovery, he would shoot the employee.
Also -- OP, what assrape conviction did you just receive for a harmless, one-off "crime" with high sentencing guidelines?
Seems pretty reasonable. I believe that circumstances like this are at least somewhat taken into consideration already. "Three strikes" and you're out, arises from this, I believe.
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