How do you defend the justice system in a case like this??

[Nyoibo]

The worst part is that he might not have been such a bad kid when he started his sentence as a teenager. Maybe he'd just made a mistake. But you put someone in a US prison for over ten years at that age, and it's anyone's guess as to the kind of person that will be released.

I'm just trying to understand how you reconcile "not such a bad kid" with a crime that warranted a 95 year jail term?

[BlaqueKatt]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_officers_shot

Summary:

37 year old man is wanted in connection with the murder of four police officers. This man has a lengthy record of violent offenses including the rape of a child and also received a 95 year sentence which was later commuted, allowing him to be released so he could apparently later murder four cops.

Why wasn't this person locked up permanently?

your summary is missing quite a bit of info-like the important facts....

the 95 year sentence was from a string of robberies as a teenager(do enough of them and it can add up the years quickly-those crimes were non-violent and 20 years ago)-that sentence was commuted. released in 2000

Huckabee cited Clemmons' youth in granting the request. But Clemmons quickly reverted to his criminal past, violated his parole and was returned to prison. He was released again in 2004. (drinking a beer or smoking pot is a parole violation-they don't say what he did)

The rape of a child and other violent offenses are from RECENT as in this year(so five years of no criminal activity)-he posted bail pending trial-sorry the justice system worked just fine actually.....and there is some suggestion of mental illness...."investigators in the sex case said he was motivated by visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse. But he was released from jail after posting bail"

[Nyoibo]

I still stand by my comment that this could have been averted for $0.30.

[Shangri-laschild]

There's two big problems with the justice system I'm seeing here.

First off, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of rehabilitation in our criminal justice system. It isn't always the case that it would help any but in some cases, it could. Instead they get put away and then let out and what did that teach them?

The second is that people seem to have a problem with saying enough is enough with people. At the college I work at, our department might do the report and be in charge of stopping any problems when we have someone here who causes a lot of problems. It's up to the dean's office to decide if someone should be kicked out. We had a guy who kept stalking girls on campus and being generally creepy and it took forever to get him kicked out because the Dean kept simply sitting him down and showing him the policy book and telling him to stop. It didn't change anything and it was very obvious he wasn't going to stop. He's finally gone now and banned from campus but it took way too long.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

Well the suspect has been killed by police, so I suppose he got what he deserved, I only wish that could have happened without four cops losing their lives before hand.

There was a lot of controversy and outrage a few years ago when a person charged with MURDER in Toronto was released on bail. After being released he went out and killed again. I do not know all the details on that one but I think it lead to a new law that stated murder suspects could never be released on bail.

[blas87]

Murder suspects can get out on bail?

Bwah?!

What kind of retards are cavorting around pretending to be judges?

[jackfaire]

Murder suspects can get out on bail?

Bwah?!

What kind of retards are cavorting around pretending to be judges?

I would say it depends on the circumstances of the crime. Are we talking someone who killed in a crime of passion and not likely to go start killing other people while out on bail then? (rhetorical)

Basically the circumstances as well as the crime should be examined when deciding bail.

[blas87]

Yeah I guess I jumped the gun on that one and didn't consider a self defense crime or a crime of passion, I only thought of violent murders and the like.