Discuss? Let him be free or should he serve his time...

Smootchy

I hope this link works! 

WDPT? 

A man was charged and convicted of armed robbery almost 15 years ago. While he was waiting for courts to send him a date of surrender, he led his normal life. The letter of surrender never came. The man lived his life. Got married and has 4 kids. Started a business. Coached little league, the whole 9 yards. Now the courts realized their clerial error and want to send him to jail. 

https://nypost.com/2014/04/13/man-sent-to-jail-after-clerical-error-kept-him-free-for-13-years/ 

ETA: someone please fix this link. My computer will not let me link anymore for some reason. 

PLEASE AND THANK YOU

EVA116

What did he rob? Was it armed robbery?

EVA116

I think he needs to serve some time. You can't just go around waving a gun at people and taking their money and get away with it.

littlestjerry

He should serve his time. I have no idea what a date to surrender means, but if you're convicted, you know you're going to have to be sentenced at some point. This should not come a a surprise to him, though I do feel slightly sympathetic to his plight. Only slightly.

EVA116

I am sure his lawyer will get him out of a lot of it.

EVA116

TheEmpireNeedsYou said:

I think I'd prefer some sort of compromise. Big old fine, probation, lots of community service. It just doesn't seem right to put him in jail now, but it also doesn't seem right that he should go totally free either.

This is what his lawyer will get him.

bumpuser1691848

We're talking about the same thing on an offboard I'm on. The consensus is that he should get probation.

I have to say I agree, mainly because of what @TheEmpireNeedsYou already pointed out.

littlestjerry

Haha, I couldn't get the link to work. If he really did tell his attorney, I feel worse for him, but I still don't really understand how this is some unfortunate surprise. Was he already sentenced to time to serve or only convicted? If the latter, then I could see that probation is appropriate at this point. But he certainly needs some sentence.

littlestjerry

I'm generally somewhat defense minded, but it's possible I've just been jaded by my jobs. As a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've heard many an excuse along the lines of "oh, I didn't know I had to do that," so my first thought is usually "well, you should have."

littlestjerry

PrivacyWanted said:

@little Jerry   from what I can piece together from various news stories. It looks like he served some local time, then got released on Bail.  There were some pending appeals, the final appeal got denied and the case got remanded to the trial court to finish up sentencing.  At that point the DA said they didn't need to issue a warrant because he was already in custody.  The defense attorney was confused, but didn't push the issue. There was also some confusion about his good-time credits on the local level.  Then his told him when he called that there must be some paper errors and expect to get picked up.
He thought maybe they'd decided his good-time credits were what he and his attorney thought when they never picked him up.

  

Still confused about at what point he was convicted. After being released on bond? If this is all true, then, yeah, probate the guy and move on.

shadypines

He's obviously reformed himself better than the system could have ever hoped to reform him.  I think a lot more good would be done if he were using his new skills to benefit people outside of the prison system.
Maybe teaching his skills to young people who might otherwise drift into crime....