I live in the "almost as backwards as Mississippi" state of Alabama and in November of 2009 a North Alabama judge put the drug war in perspective for me. There were three people, a woman and two men who were found guilty of murdering a crippled man and then setting his body on fire in October of 2008. The North Alabama judge passed down their sentences in November 2009 and they were as follows:
* the woman received 18 months jail time.
*one man was sentenced to 3 years jail time
* the second man received 2 years PROBATION!
Those sentences are ludicrous! Then, to add insult to injury, the very next day that same judge gave a man found guilty of manufacturing methamphetamine for his own personal use LIFE WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE!! That man wasn't hurting anyone but himself! It was even made public that he took great care in disposing of the manufacturing waste so as not to hurt the enviiornment. He didn't have children and he lived in the middle of nowhere.
What kind of message does that give?? "Its okay to beat a defenseless man to death then set him on fire but better not be cooking meth and only hurting yourself"
I imagine that things like this are happening all over when it comes to putting drug law crimes ahead of actual violent crimes.It just doesn't make sense.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Add new comment