Comments on: Cruel and Unusual?

By: HTH

HTH — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:18:05 +0000

DA explains why plea agreement could not be reached in Taylor case

http://elkodaily.com/news/local/article_13eb1e20-5da7-50d7-8188-92ef3d9fc601.html

He says Taylor would not agree to a plea bargain that required her to register as a sex offender. She chose to plead innocent to the charge with the life sentence instead, taking her chances.

By: finzent

finzent — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:48:34 +0000

@dullgeek:

“If being lewd, etc, carries a harsher sentence than manslaughter, doesn’t that create an incentive for more manslaughter?”

Why would it?

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:24:03 +0000

The only thing I have to offer here is this:
Imagine if the sexes of the offender and victim were reversed?
If “Michelle Lyn Taylor, age 34, got drunk one night and tried to seduce a 13 year old boy by taking his hand and putting it on her breast.” were replaced with “Michael Taylor, age 34, got drunk one night and tried to seduce a 13 year old girl by taking her hand and putting it on his genitalia,” would we be more likely to say “Thank you judicial system for protecting other young girls from that monster!”

By: dullgeek

dullgeek — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:23:04 +0000

I’m surprised that no one on this blog has identified this potential result: If being lewd, etc, carries a harsher sentence than manslaughter, doesn’t that create an incentive for more manslaughter?

I find this case to be sad. But I’m more worried about what implication this law has on the lives of children if a minor crime carriers a harsher sentence than a more serious crime. It seems to me that, at the margin, you’re going to get substitution of the serious crime for the minor one.

But I’m not an economist. Maybe I’m misunderstanding how this kind of thing works.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:02:40 +0000

jambarama: “The ADA may have discretion on which statute to charge her with”

Precisely the source of my and Alan’s puzzlement. Why was that discretion not exercised? Does the DA’s office think that this is popular in their district? Are they excessively strict? Do they have a personal problem with the defendant or her attorney? Did the defendant or her attorney decide to go for an all-or-nothing “make my day” strategy?

By: jambarama

jambarama — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:50:29 +0000

@Alan Gunn – the law absolutely does restrict discretion. It disallows either the judge or prosecutor from considering any sentence other than a life sentence with possibility of parole in 10 years. The ADA may have discretion on which statute to charge her with, but doesn’t have discretion with regard to the penalty.

That’s the problem – overlapping and poorly defined crimes. Obviously the legislature wasn’t thinking of this type of action when they created the mandatory life sentence.

By: Bill Drissel

Bill Drissel — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:31:53 +0000

Lesson: The law is a chainsaw; not a delicate surgical instrument.

I don’t fully fathom the panicky response to activities like this by people who have no regard for chastity – who would regard the activity with a smile if the “victim” were a couple of years older.

I certainly hope this case warrants executive clemency.

By: Robin Hanson

Robin Hanson — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 06:34:31 +0000

This is extremely sad. Doesn’t anyone in that system care how bad this makes them look?

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:39:35 +0000

I’m with Alan Gunn in wondering why the prosecutors opted for this seemingly odd course of action.

GregS, right on! I’ve had it with all those stupid people abusing democracy to foist their laws on the rest of us. It’s time for wise judges to take charge.

By: JAB

JAB — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 18:19:17 +0000

FYI, what’s going on here is that the Judge knows he has to impose this sentence, but he’s breaking the rules to let her raise all these constitutional arguments as a way to help her out. Because on appeal, all these arguments need to have been raised below, and he knows this will be appealed. What he has to do by law is pretty obvious, but he is doing her a favor.