More victims of the war on drugs and gun control

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595106003,00.html

This guy had 16 charges against him.

He got 1 day of prison time for 13 of the charges, which included all the drug related ones and whatnot.

But he got 55 years in prison for 3 weapons charges.

However this guy was never convicted of theatening, attacking, hurting, or killing anyone with any firearm.

That sentance is totally fucking rediculous.

Judges and or juries should have guidelines only.

I have less of problem with statutorially imposed maximums, that way somebody can't get sentenced to 5 years for spittin' on the sidewalk because the jury didn't like the color of his tie - but the factual determination of aggravating and mitigating circumstances that determine the minimum sentence level should soley be determined by the trial court.

Obviously, this guy was doing things he shouldn't have been doing and he knew were illegal: selling drugs and carrying a gun while selling drugs. But to get a life sentence for a first conviction for non-violent crime is a tragedy and should sicken all of us.

Anyone who thinks "it couldn't happen to me" is deluded. If you put the facts together the right way, that kind of conviction could happen to many of us. Fact 1: your grandfather dies and leaves you some old boxes of stuff, and among those boxes happens to be grandpa's old hunting shotgun and his old revolver. You've never opened these boxes, you just stored them in the basement. You don't realize but there are two old rusty guns in your basement that you own.

Fact two, you smoke some bud. Or maybe it's not even some bud. You're stressed out, having trouble sleeping, and your friend says "oh, here's an Ambien pill, it will help you sleep." Or you happen to have a Viagra pill or any perscription drug without the perscription. If, somehow the fates align against you and for whatever reason your house gets searched that night, and you are found to have a perscription medciine without a perscription, and two guns. Five years for the first gun, 25 for the second gun, and so you get 30 years in Club Fed and the judge has no discretion.

This is the kind of thing that could happen to anyone almost, if the circumstances are just slightly wrong and somehow the house gets searched at the wrong time in the wrong way.

It's just a tragic waste of life. Mandatory sentencing guidelines take judgment out of the justice system.

in your basement is a far cry from having unregistered weapons on you in the act of dealing drugs.

Yeah, the sentence is whack, but I think this example is as extreme as the sentence.

but has a lot to do with the justice system and mandatory minimum sentences. I'm sure that there are many other petty crimes that could lead to a life sentence due to a stupid system - whatever happened to "3 strikes and you're out"?

However......no matter how unjust the length of this sentence, the guy was carrying guns during a drug deal and had further illegal firearms back at his house, so it's not like he was Mary Poppins.