A note on the Amazon ads: I've chosen to display current events titles in the Amazon box. Unfortunately, Amazon appears to promote a disproportionate number of angry-left books. I have no power over it at this time. Rest assured, I'm still a conservative.
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Thursday, January 22, 2004
Why we have mandatory sentencing: Former GOP congressman Bill Janklow of South Dakota was sentenced today to 100 days in jail for a crash that killed a motorcyclist. Janklow was speeding (as he has an almost legendary history of doing) and ran a stop sign before killing 55-year-old Randy Scott.
There are occasions when I think that mandatory sentecing guidelines do an injustice -- they are a blunt instrument with no capacity for nuance. But the reason legislatures have passed sentencing guidelines is because there are judges who don't have a lot of sense.
A person with a long history of speeding tickets who took pride in his lead foot runs a stop sign and kills a man only gets 100 days? If I'm the judge, I probably sentence him somewhere in the range of 3-4 years.
3:46 PM
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