Europe really is soft on crime.

[Wezil]

Re: Re: Re: Europe really is soft on crime.

Originally posted by Shrapnel12


OJ Simpson was found not guilty. We don't lynch people in this country. I may feel he is guilty, but I wasn't on the jury and I didn't see the evidence. I will even say it's a tragedy he went free, but that's the fault of the jury if they didn't do their job correct, not a fault of the system (unless you want to argue that a jury system is the problem).

Well at least the French could bring themselves to convict one of their celebrities. Your nation needs to hush up on this issue.

[DinoDoc]

Hey we banckrupted him at least.

[Wezil]

Oh really? He seems to be doing okay. How much was his bail in the latest caper? 100K I seem to recall... Pretty good for a bankrupt.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MikeH
I bet in the US 8 years, serving 4, is not an unusual sentence for MANSLAUGHTER, he wasn't convicted of murder after all.

]Seems like it.

[Donegeal]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Europe really is soft on crime.

Originally posted by Wezil


Well at least the French could bring themselves to convict one of their celebrities. Your nation needs to hush up on this issue.

Vick.

[Wezil]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Europe really is soft on crime.

Originally posted by Donegeal


Vick.

Phil Spectre.

[TheStinger]

Vick was horrible to animals though, even juries who are blinded by celebdom won't stand for that

[snoopy369]

Voluntary manslaughter (what he'd have been convicted of here unless he planned to kill her ahead of time and this could be proven) would bring around an 8 year sentence typically in the US, or even a bit less often.

[Riesstiu IV]

In my country, we're hard on crime and soft on fabrics.

[Pekka]

Oerdin, how is that even newsworthy? out in 4 is the norm, not the exception. In fact 4 is pretty tough, since that would mean 8 year sentence. In here? For killing someone? That's a lot. That's about the MAX if it wasn't a real murder, in which case it goes to 10 years or more most likely.

Out in 4? ****... that's the best you can hope for if someone killed a person you know. It's sick, but hey, the society failed the killer... partially responsible. SUre.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST


It is something called Sicherungsverwahrung (Preventive detention).

After you served your sentence justice can determine that you still pose a danger for society and therefore have to stay in Sicherungsverwahrung (in special prisons) until it is determined (by psychologsts) that you aren´t a danger for society anymore. It could (hypothetically) well be that you stay in Sicherungsverwahrung for the rest of your life, although your prison sentence was just 10-20 years.
(something I would hope for the murders in the torture case I mentioned a few days ago; they got 10, 14 and 15 years, but I hope they´ll stay in prison much longer because of this preventive detention)

In Canada a "dangerous offender" can be sent to jail indfinitely but it requires them to go to court and PROVE the person is a dangerous offender. The last one I heard about didn't kill anyone IIRC but he did tend to rape someone within weeks of getting free

[Flubber]

Oh ya and I recall a conversation I had with my crim prof who was a prosecutor of long standing.

He indicated that the majority of people charged with murder or manslaughter were actually pretty decent people, who truly regretted what they did and who were no real risk to re-offend. Most murders/manslaughters are situations where someone gets upset and strikes out, often with unintended consequences

[Dinner]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Voluntary manslaughter (what he'd have been convicted of here unless he planned to kill her ahead of time and this could be proven) would bring around an 8 year sentence typically in the US, or even a bit less often.

One of the links above is for that very charge but the perp got 20 years of which he must serve 75%. I'd say the US has much stiffer punishments.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Oerdin


One of the links above is for that very charge but the perp got 20 years of which he must serve 75%. I'd say the US has much stiffer punishments.

Please tell me you aren't making that claim based upon this 1X1 comparison?

[Wezil]

The US is too lenient.

A judge on Friday stood by his lenient sentence for a teenage boy who accidentally shot his stepbrother to death, this time giving the boy home detention in a way that didn't appear to run afoul of state law.

Last month, Jordan Jantoc, 17, was sentenced to two years of electronic home monitoring -- keeping him at his parents' home except when he is attending school -- for accidentally shooting his stepbrother to death last year.

Afterward, the state Department of Corrections said the sentence violated state law: Home detention is not available for people convicted of violent offenses.

The revelation stunned Jantoc's family, who once again feared their son would end up behind bars for the crime.

On Friday, with the agreement of King County prosecutors and Jantoc's attorney, Superior Court Judge Harry McCarthy withdrew the sentence. He then set a new sentencing hearing to be held in July.

He ordered the teen to remain on electronic monitoring until then, when he would be given credit for the all the time he has already spent, and will spend, confined at home. The result is the same: two years of home detention.

King County Jail officials will monitor him because although he's pleaded guilty to manslaughter, he has not yet officially been sentenced for the violent crime.

In an emotional hearing last month, the teen's family pleaded to keep the boy out of prison, pointing out that he didn't mean to shoot Michael Miller, 16, and had no prior record. Prosecutors recommended a three-year sentence, but McCarthy disagreed, saying it was "a case where justice needs to be tempered by mercy."

On Friday, McCarthy reiterated that "no good would come out of sentencing this 17-year- old to three years in an adult penal institution."

For Jantoc's parents, worry turned to relief.

"We're happy to have him home with us," said his mom, Lena Jantoc.

"That's where he belongs, anyway."

P-I reporter Tracy Johnson can be reached