Originally posted by cnf at 9-5-2010 13:41
the judge stated that he was unable to apply any other sentence as the law did not permit. He was forced to sentence life.
but i agree wif u man... at 13 u wouldnt be traumatised.. maybe alittle repu ...
mandatory sentencing is a bad idea in practice. In theory it's great: everyone convicted of the exact same crime gets the exact same sentence; supposedly nice and fair eh? But no two crimes are ever exactly alike. Also, the legislature's ability to foresee every criminal circumstance is poor (resulting in harsher senteces for crack than for powder cocaine, for example).
While no two judges will every be identical in their judgements, you have to leave it to the courts to sentence offenders. Sure there will be some imperfections, but it's a better system than letting the legislature pre-judge everyone with mandatory sentencing laws.