On 3 Mar 2005 10:38:46 -0800, the inscrutable jim rozen
spake:

In article , Gunner says...

So if you are a minor of any age, you get a free pass to murder
someone. One would HOPE that those sentences are commuted to life
without the possibility of parole..but if its simply converted to
Life...they could be out in less than 20 yrs. In some cases..less than
12.

It's a tough call. When Gideon v. Wainright was finally decided,
they had to decide what to do with all the prisoners who had been
tried, convicted, and incarcerated without ever having had any
legal representation.

I think most of them got new trials - but I believe that they
took the ones who were illiterate, and simply released them.

WTF for?


No doubt some of them were indeed guilty of the crimes they
had been charged with. What's worse, knowing that they're back
out on the street - or knowing that you live in a country where
a man who cannot read or write, and cannot afford a lawyer, can
be convicted of a crime and sent to jail?

What does any one of those things have to do with the others?
Our justice system, such as it is, says that ignorance is no
excuse. And poor folks get free legal representation.

That they're out on the streets is the problem.

What's worse, dealing drugs or killing several people? Dealers
get worse sentences than killers do in this country. Go figure.

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