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Our good friend Cornelious Anderson, who we may remember as a man convicted of armed robbery but who never served his sentence because a clerical error resulted in him never being told when or where to report to prison. He's been in jail for nearly a year now, but after a short hearing a judge ruled that the past thirteen years would count as time served and set him free, arguing that never reporting to prison was a fault of the state, not Anderson.

http://news.yahoo.com/man-freed-missouri-delayed-imprisonment-case-152627742.html

My favorite line;

"He has been able to accomplish for himself what the criminal justice system does not accomplish in many situations," Megaro told the judge.

Are there any parties with the ability to fight this, or try and take it to a higher court? I can't imagine anyone with any political exposure will risk letting this sit, if they have any capacity to otherwise.

Well, normally I'd be full of rage at this, but they do have a point. If he had gone and comitted other crimes in the intervening thirteen years, he would've been caught and sent to prison for the robbery and whatever else he did. He avoided getting arrested again by following the law. I do think "time served" is a little too lenient and sets a bad precedent. Maybe thirty days and time served, but I wouldn't go any harsher than that. After all, the biggest screw up here isn't the defendant, it is the governement that forgot to tell him where to go for prison and then forgot about him for over a decade.

I don't see a problem with this. He made attempts to go to jail after receiving his sentence. The system refused to accept him. What was he supposed to do?

He went on to lead a good life, turn himself around, and became an asset to the community. Once the system caught up, he served time. To me, I think that quote was dead on. The system failed to do its job, but he rehabilitated himself anyways, so why continue to penalize him?

 Chongara wrote:
Are there any parties with the ability to fight this, or try and take it to a higher court? I can't imagine anyone with any political exposure will risk letting this sit, if they have any capacity to otherwise.

He's going free because the political will is to let him go. Maybe if he'd returned to a life of crime, everyone would be willing to throw the book at him but he pulled his gak together and made something of himself. Its the kind of sappy story people get behind.

I'd also argue that his due process right would be violated sending him to jail now. The state fethed up, not Anderson. It would be excessively cruel to punish him at this point.

This gives me strange amounts of faith in the human race. He did something bad, but he's rehabilitated himself. Based upon what I hear of prison sentenced repeat offenders, I wonder how much less able to function in society he would be if the system actually did what it was supposed to.

 daedalus wrote:
This gives me strange amounts of faith in the human race. He did something bad, but he's rehabilitated himself. Based upon what I hear of prison sentenced repeat offenders, I wonder how much less able to function in society he would be if the system actually did what it was supposed to.

Well after that Texas judge ruled a rapist can go free cause he might amount to something at some unspecific point in time, a story about a guy going free for actually amounting to something seemed appropriate

 LordofHats wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
This gives me strange amounts of faith in the human race. He did something bad, but he's rehabilitated himself. Based upon what I hear of prison sentenced repeat offenders, I wonder how much less able to function in society he would be if the system actually did what it was supposed to.

Well after that Texas judge ruled a rapist can go free cause he might amount to something at some unspecific point in time, a story about a guy going free for actually amounting to something seemed appropriate

Keep the good karma flowing Lordie!

 LordofHats wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
This gives me strange amounts of faith in the human race. He did something bad, but he's rehabilitated himself. Based upon what I hear of prison sentenced repeat offenders, I wonder how much less able to function in society he would be if the system actually did what it was supposed to.

Well after that Texas judge ruled a rapist can go free cause he might amount to something at some unspecific point in time, a story about a guy going free for actually amounting to something seemed appropriate

:(

If it was me I'd sentence him to some community service doing a tour as a motivational speaker Try to show some other people how to turn their lives around so they don't end up in jail in the first place.

If it were me, I'd volunteer to do that. The situation is profound because it disproves the natural conclusion that Americans hold as true as far as rehabilitation and prison. You CAN become a productive member of society even if you don't go to prison. There's too much to gain here from him NOT speaking out about his situation. I hope he chooses to do so.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Chongara wrote:
Are there any parties with the ability to fight this, or try and take it to a higher court? I can't imagine anyone with any political exposure will risk letting this sit, if they have any capacity to otherwise.

He's going free because the political will is to let him go.

No way. I don't buy it. I give it two weeks tops before the SOFT ON CRIME crowd are threatening to oust whoever in the next election if they don't do something about it. I mean that's not even considering the racial aspect to the whole thing. The only way somebody isn't going to come down hard on this, if none of the people with any influence have to answer to voters especially in a red state.

Glad they got it right for the man.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Chongara wrote:
Are there any parties with the ability to fight this, or try and take it to a higher court? I can't imagine anyone with any political exposure will risk letting this sit, if they have any capacity to otherwise.

If I read you correctly, you think there might be someone who wants him back in jail?
If they were smart, they'd check the opinions on Dakka about this matter. I think it's one of three times in history every poster was in agreement on a subject. If that doesn't give a politician pause for thought, let him proceed hastily to his well earned self destruction.

Justice was served in his matter. I'm glad he is free.

Relapse wrote:

If I read you correctly, you think there might be someone who wants him back in jail?

You're kidding right? This is the country that will put children away from 20+ years for getting caught marijuana a few times. You think suddenly there aren't going to be a enough loud-mouthed, hard-hearted bastards to get somebody to try and put a grown-ass black guy who admitted to the crime away?

 Chongara wrote:

Relapse wrote:

If I read you correctly, you think there might be someone who wants him back in jail?

You're kidding right? This is the country that will put children away from 20+ years for getting caught marijuana a few times. You think suddenly there aren't going to be a enough loud-mouthed, hard-hearted bastards to get somebody to try and put a grown-ass black guy who admitted to the crime away?

You're kidding me right? Marijuana is illegal in the USA. You get caught with it you go to jail.

That's the extent of my opinion on drugs. They're illegal, don't do them. I don't really care what people put in their bodies, but you obey the law on this or else accept the punishment. In this guy's case the punishment never came, so he got lucky and did the right thing by deciding to turn his life around anyway.

 dementedwombat wrote:

 Chongara wrote:

Relapse wrote:

If I read you correctly, you think there might be someone who wants him back in jail?

You're kidding right? This is the country that will put children away from 20+ years for getting caught marijuana a few times. You think suddenly there aren't going to be a enough loud-mouthed, hard-hearted bastards to get somebody to try and put a grown-ass black guy who admitted to the crime away?

You're kidding me right? Marijuana is illegal in the USA. You get caught with it you go to jail.

That's the extent of my opinion on drugs. They're illegal, don't do them. I don't really care what people put in their bodies, but you obey the law on this or else accept the punishment. In this guy's case the punishment never came, so he got lucky and did the right thing by deciding to turn his life around anyway.

I think the problem that Chongara has (I could be wrong though) isn't to do with pot being illegal necessarily, but the ridiculous sentences handed down for crimes which really aren't that bad (for example, holding a little bit of pot).

 dementedwombat wrote:

 Chongara wrote:

Relapse wrote:

If I read you correctly, you think there might be someone who wants him back in jail?

You're kidding right? This is the country that will put children away from 20+ years for getting caught marijuana a few times. You think suddenly there aren't going to be a enough loud-mouthed, hard-hearted bastards to get somebody to try and put a grown-ass black guy who admitted to the crime away?

You're kidding me right? Marijuana is illegal in the USA. You get caught with it you go to jail.

That's the extent of my opinion on drugs. They're illegal, don't do them. I don't really care what people put in their bodies, but you obey the law on this or else accept the punishment. In this guy's case the punishment never came, so he got lucky and did the right thing by deciding to turn his life around anyway.

The way the U.S. government is arbitrarily deciding which federal laws they want to enforce (Washington and Colorado drug laws) it's hard to say what will be counted as legal and illegal.
But that's subject for another thread.

Think the judge shotgun the hearing being he was under a year about to bingo over a year?

I think that this was the right ruling for this case.

 dementedwombat wrote:
If it was me I'd sentence him to some community service doing a tour as a motivational speaker Try to show some other people how to turn their lives around so they don't end up in jail in the first place.

That's so much better than what I said. Can I change my post to this, please?